THE STORY OF THE BACTERIA. 63 



entable 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 

 career, became convinced that the poison caus- 

 ing childbed fever could be carried on the 

 clothes of the physician from one patient to 

 another. What the poison was he could not 

 even fairly conjecture, but of the fact he was 

 certain. In spite of much opposition and ridi- 

 cule he urged his views, and many lives were 

 ultimately saved and epidemics stayed because 

 of his persistency in making known his facts. 

 To-day we not only know that all that he 

 urged was true, but the poison which he as- 

 sumed but could not see has been proved to 

 be bacteria, and we can now cultivate them 

 in tubes and know exactly what will most 



