THE BACTERIA IN SURGICAL LESIONS. N i gt 
§ 4.— Or THE ROLE or THE BACTERIA IN 
SurGIcAL LEsIONs. 
Existence of Bacteria in the Liquids Secreted 
by Surgical Lesions. — Since the day when thera- 
peutics has entered upon a road truly scientific, 
the study of the. liquids secreted upon the surface 
of divided tissues has occupied an important place 
in the observations and researches of surgeons. 
Little by little the discussion of operative methods 
has fallen to the second place, so that to-day, both 
in the press and in the societies, but little attention 
is given to the mode of proceeding or to the form 
of the flaps; but the greatest interest is taken in 
all questions touching the pathological physiology 
of solutions of continuity. Thirty years ago it 
was to chemistry that we looked for an explana- 
tion of the complex phenomena which favor or 
prevent the cicatrization of wounds: to-day it is 
above all to the microscope; or rather it is to that 
part of chemistry which is the most particularly 
indebted to the microscope for the progress which 
it has accomplished, that is to say, to the science 
of ferments, to zymotic chemistry. To show by 
what labors this tendency has been brought about, 
to what facts they have led, and what progress has 
been realized, is the object which we propose to 
ourselves in this paragraph. 
it is possible to reproduce malarial infection in every form in rabbits in 
which it is known in men; 2. That the malaria produced artificially in 
animals is generated by organisms existing in the malarial soil at a time 
when the outbreak of the fever has not yet taken place.” — Extract from 
Leading Article in “ Philadelphia Medical Times,” March 138, 1880. 
