The decisive period in the primary infection of muscle by Escherichia coli.

superinfected with a non-replicating phage was used to study the course of infection in the adductor muscle of mice in terms of the content of viable bacilli and the multiplication rate. The infection was characterized by a steady decrease of bacterial numbers to 5% of the inoculum within 4 hours without any compensating multiplication. Within the next 3 hours there was slight multiplication (2 generation or less) followed by a slow decrease of numbers to nil in 72 hours.