THE BACTERIA IN SURGICAL LESIONS. 181 
which occur in dressing the wound (the pressure 
and manipulations which it was formerly custom- 
ary to resort to), a rent being produced, the infec- 
tious agent will be able to penetrate into the 
blood current or into the lymphatics, and the door 
will thus be opened to local or general compli- 
cations. 
As a local complication, we should cite, above 
all, ?abcés de voisinage. Jf the presence of bac- 
teria in the pus of spontaneous abscesses is still 
under discussion, all observers are agreed as to 
their presence in secondary purulent collections. 
Bouloumié has taught us that in pus coming from 
abscesses developed in the parts in the vicinity of 
a wound, whatever may be its extent and depth, 
we may verify the presence of all the micro- 
organisms found in the pus of the wound, or cer- 
tain ones only, according as the abscess is developed 
in parts continuous with or contiguous to the tis- 
sues of the wound. There is then no doubt that, 
“in this case, these elements are absorbed, or at least 
find their way through the veins or lymphatics. 
The inflammatory action of micro-organisms, thrown 
thus into the midst of healthy tissues, even of those 
which become inflamed with the most difficulty, is 
easy to demonstrate. 
The following unpublished experiments upon 
this point have been communicated to us by our 
friend Dr. Louis Jullien: — 
EXPERIMENT 1.— Having gathered some dust in the 
surgical wards at Lyons, I put it in a flask of distilled 
water. At the end of some days I had thus given rise 
