CHAPTER VI. 



THE BACTERIA OF SURGICAL DISEASES. 



ONE of the greatest dangers associated 

 with injuries and wounds of the body, 

 whether inflicted by accident or made by the 

 knife of the surgeon in necessary operations, 

 is the liability to what is known as blood 

 poisoning. 



So great is this danger, that it has long been 

 known that in war a great many more lives 

 are lost from blood poisoning than by bullets 

 or cannon-balls. The cause of this form of 

 disease, which is so apt to complicate wounds, 

 was for a long time entirely unknown. Then, 

 as these wounds were apt, in blood poisoning, 

 to be foul and bad-smelling, it was concluded 

 that the trouble might be that dirt or filth of 

 some sort got into them and so set up the dis- 

 ease. 



What the particular thing was, whether 



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