Wounds and Surgical Diseases 75 



It is one of the greatest practical triumphs 

 of science in modern times that the surgeon 

 can now so carefully plan out his operations 

 and treatment of wounds, that not only is 

 blood poisoning, as it used to prevail but a few 

 years ago, the greatest rarity among edu- 

 cated and skilful surgeons, but the most ex- 

 tensive operations, such as opening the great 

 cavities of the body, may now be done, when 

 they are necessary to save life or make it 

 endurable, with very little risk of the dangers 

 which formerly attended such procedures. 



Childbed fever, which in former times 

 claimed so many victims under especially 

 pitiful circumstances, and which used some- 

 times to spread with frightful rapidity among 

 women whose confinement took place in hos- 

 pitals, is now of comparatively rare occur- 

 rence, because the educated physician knows 

 what the particular element of danger is and 

 how to avoid and combat it. For it has been 

 found that childbed fever is really a form of 

 blood poisoning, due to the same germs as 

 induce the disease in ordinary wounds. 



Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, early in his 



