A COMMON MICROBE MAY BE PATHOGENIC 265 



teria which we have dwelt upon throughout this book 

 and which he understood so well. 



Preoccupied as he was with the application of these 

 facts to medicine, he could not fail to write, at this stage, 

 the following lines, the advantage of which we shall 

 find once more at the end of this chapter. 



"A curious therapeutic observation presents itself. 

 Let us suppose a wound exposed to the air and under 

 putrefying conditions leading to the accident of simple 

 septicemia in the patient, I mean without other compli- 

 cations than would result from the development of the 

 septic vibrio. Theoretically, at least, the best means of 

 preventing death would be to wash the wound unceas- 

 ingly with common aerated water, or to fiood the sur- 

 face with atmospheric air. The adult septic vibrios, 

 about to divide by fission, would die in contact with 

 the air; as to their germs, they would not grow. 

 Furthermore, one might expose the surface of the wound 

 to air heavily charged with the germs of the septic 

 vibrio, or wash it with water holding in suspension billions 

 of these germs without producing the least septicemia 

 in the patient. But under similar conditions let a single 

 clot of blood, or a single fragment of dead flesh, lodge 

 in a corner of the wound sheltered from the oxygen of 

 the air, where it remains surrounded by carbonic acid 

 gas, even though it might be over a very small area, 

 and beginning at once the septic germs will give rise? 

 in less than 24 hours, to an infinite number of vibrios 

 multiplying by fission and capable of causing in a very 

 short time a mortal septicemia." 



And immediately, through the door he has opened, 

 he passes a whole series of similar cases. There is, 

 for example, in common waters from the most varied 

 sources, another vibrio both aerobic like the bacter- 

 idium of anthrax and anaerobic like the septic vibrio. 



