A COMMON MICROBE MAY BE PATHOGENIC 267 



in the tissues. "This water, this sponge, this hnt with 

 which you wash or cover a wound, deposit germs there 

 which, as you see, have an extreme facility for multiplying 

 within the tissues and which would infallibly cause the 

 death of the patient in a very short time, if the body 

 by its vital processes did not check the multiplication 

 of these germs. But alas, how many times this vital 

 resistance is impotent, how often the constitution of 

 the wounded man, his weakness, his morale, and bad 

 dressing of the wound oppose only an insufficient barrier 

 to the invasion of these infinitely small organisms with 

 which, unwittingly, you have entirely covered him in the 

 injured part. If I had the honor to be a surgeon, 

 impressed as I am with the dangers to which the patient 

 is exposed by the germs of microbes scattered over the 

 surface of all objects, particularly in hospitals, not only 

 would I use none but perfectly clean instruments, but 

 after having cleansed my hands with the greatest care 

 and subjected them to a rapid flaming, which would ex- 

 pose them to no more inconvenience than that felt by a 

 smoker who passes a glowing coal from one hand to 

 the other, I would use only lint, bandages and sponges 

 previously exposed to air of a temperature of 130 to 

 150 C; I would never use any water which had not been 

 subjected to a temperature of 110 to 120 C. All this 

 is very practical. In this way, I would only have to fear 

 the germs in suspension in the air around the bed of the 

 patient; but observation shows us daily that the num- 

 ber of these germs is, so to speak, insignificant in com- 

 parison with those distributed in the dust on the surface 

 of objects, or in the clearest ordinary water. And, fur- 

 thermore, nothing should prevent the use of antiseptic 

 methods in dressing wounds, but, joined with the pre- 

 cautions I have indicated, these methods of procedure 

 could be very greatly simplified. A weak phenic acid. 



