EXPERIMENTAL ABSCESS OF THE LUNG IN THE DOG

The American Association for Thoracic Surgery has done much to stimulate an interest in the etiology and methods of prevention of postoperative abscess of the lung. Tonsillectomy and other operations in the upper air passages that are carried out under general anesthesia are responsible for the largest number of the reported cases, but abscess of the lung does occur as a complication of tonsillectomy and extraction of teeth under local anesthesia and occasionally after appendectomy. It is true that a real absecss in the lung with cavity formation commonly follows an operation for a septic condition, but in studying the etiology of this type of abscess it might be well to consider the relation between postoperative bronchopneumonia (a complication in about 5 per cent of clean surgical operations, such as hernia) and infections of the lung that proceed to cavity formation. Are all abscesses of the lung due to infected