Tur Microscope. 253 
We are also speedily coming to recognize that all acute sup- 
purative processes are chargeable to bacteria. What an era of pro- 
gress in surgery is this of our day! What inestimable blessings to 
the maimed and unfortunate have come since Lister first experi- 
mented with his cleansed instruments and antiseptic dressings! 
What needless pain has been spared and how many lives have 
been saved by the progress in surgery since the memorable date of 
1865! 
An operation (ovariotomy) which previous to that time was 
considered well nigh fatal, and twenty per cent. of deaths in spite 
of the highest attainable skill occurred, has been performed one 
hundred and thirty-nine times in the two years, ending Decem- 
ber, 1885, without a single death, by Lawton Tait, of England ; and 
others are having almost as marvelous success. It used to be said 
when skin eruptions occurred, when boils, felons, abcesses, car- 
buncles, etc., affected the suffering, that “the blood was out of or- 
der,” and various and powerful were the prescriptions therefor. 
Perhaps the most of us can remember the regular sulphur and 
molasses treatment every spring time to dissipate the evil accu- 
mulations of inactive winter. Even now it is supposed by many 
that irritants, like croton oil, applied to the skin produce sup- 
puration, but investigations show that in none of these and similar 
instances is pus formed without micro-organisms as the true agents. 
Again we have come to understand that many diseases not 
commonly conveyed from the sick to the healthy are directly con- 
nected with the food and water consumed. Multitudes of cases 
are on record where sickness has been attributed to canned vege- 
tables, preserved meats, fish, milk in various shapes and methods, 
edible mushrooms, etc. Statistics gathered in Swabia show in half 
a century four hundred cases of sickness and one hundred and 
fifty deaths from sausage poison, presumably not trichine. An 
epidemic in the Volga district that spread terror throughout 
Europe a few years ago was traced to the preserved fish used as 
their almost entire food. Abundant examples are furnished in our 
own country in every community. Last year numerous cases of 
poisoning by cheese were reported in Michigan, and now sim- 
ilar word of like effeet reaches us from the use of ice cream. Re- 
cently in Wilhelmshaven, a seaport town of North Germany, a 
large number of people were made sick after eating edible clams 
