I'HE DOCTltlNE OF CONTAGlUM VIVUM. 3l9 



poison. Defined in this way, I believe that every successful 

 method of treating wounds will be found to conform to the 

 antiseptic principle, and that herein lies the secret of the 

 favorable results of modes of treatment which at first sight 

 appear to be in contradiction to the antiseptic principle. 

 Take, for example, the open method of treating wounds, 

 which is sometimes compared in its results with Lister's 

 method. What is this treatment but another way (only less 

 ideally perfect than Lister's) of defending the patient against 

 the septic poison ? Because, if the surgeon succeeds in pro- 

 viding such free exit for the discharges that there is no lodg- 

 ment of them in the wound, either they pass out of it before 

 there is time for the production of the septic poison, or if any 

 be produced, it escapes so quickly that there is not enough 

 absorbed to provoke an appreciable toxic effect. 



Before we can understand the pathology of septicaemia we 

 must have clear ideas on the relation of septic bacteria to our 

 bodies. We see in our laboratories that dead animal tissues, 

 when exposed to ordinary air or ordinary water, invariably 

 breed septic organisms; in other words, contact of the septic 

 germs with the dead tissues never fails to produce successful 

 septic inoculation. But it is quite otherwise with the same 

 tissues when alive and forming part of our bodies. You 

 cannot successfully inoculate the healthy tissues with septic 

 bacteria. It has been proved over and over again that these 

 organisms, when separated from the decomposing medium in 

 which they grow, can be injected in quantity into the blood 

 or tissues of a healthy animal, or applied to a sore on its 

 skin, without producing the least effect. The healthy living 

 tissues are an unsuitable soil for them ; the cannot grow in it ; 

 or, to put it in another way, ordinary septic bacteria are not 

 parasitic on the living tissues. 



The fact is of fundamental importance in the discussion of 

 the pathology of septica3mia. We have a familiar illustra- 

 tion of its truth in the now common practice of subcutaneous 

 injection. Every time you make a subcutaneous injection you 

 inject septic germs into the tissues. I had the curiosity 

 to test this point with the morphia solution used for this 

 purpose in the Manchester Infirmary. I injected five drops 

 of this solution into four flasks of sterilised beef-tea which 

 had remained unchanged in my room for several months, 

 taking care to avoid any other source of contamination. In 

 forty-eight hours they were all in full putrefaction. But we 

 know that no such effect follows when similar injections are 

 made into the bodies of our patients. 



It seems also probable that septic organisms enter con- 



