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In all of the complex relationships that have to do with infection that have been discussed here this morning, namely, the relative relationship between infecting organism and host resistance and the efficacy and resistance to various antibiotics, there are other factors which have to do with the nature of the lesion itself.
I will give you but two examples. We have been dealing mostly this morning with staphylococcic infections which have generally a tendency to become localized.
Infections of equal severity with the streptococcus are much more likely to be diffuse. Important in this difference is probably the great factor of the amount of proteolytic enzymes released with streptococcal infection which breaks down the attempt toward localization.
The second example is the abscess, the localized suppurative process in which there is already suppurative material within a localized space.
Under these circumstances, antibiotics have very limited value for the simple reason