The causative factors of nontuberculous abscesses of the lung are not fully known. How does the infection reach the lungs? Are there specific bacteria? Why does one person develop an abscess of the lung after a certain operative procedure while another person does not acquire such an abscess after an apparently identical procedure? This is a report of the experimental production of abscesses of the lung by aspiration, and the translation of these experimental observations into some of their clinical correlatives.
ROUTES OF ENTRY
There are three possible routes of entry for the infection in abscess of the lung. The first is direct, by way of the respiratory passages; the second is indirect, by way of the blood stream, and the third is by way of the lymphatics. The direct aspiratory route and the indirect route through the blood stream have seemed the most probable routes of entry.A considerable