BACTERIA IN SURGICAL LESIONS. 



445 



" Micrococci grow, readily, in fluids containing pro- 

 portions of carbolic acid in which bacteria only grow 

 with difficulty" (Z. <?., p. 244). 



The experiments of the writer have not shown 

 any difference as regards 

 the action of carbolic acid 

 in preventing the develop- 

 ment of these different or- 

 ganisms in culture-fluids ; 

 but in the case of boric acid 

 and of sodium biborate a 

 very marked difference was 

 observed, the micrococcus 

 of pus developing freely in Specimen of discliarge taken from a 

 the presence of 0.25 per case of compound dislocation of 



the thumb not treated asepti- 



cent of boric acid, while B. calj y- x 1450. (From cheyne's 



. " Antiseptic Surgery.") 



termo failed to develop in 



the presence of one-half this amount. It is pro- 

 bable that free access of oxygen in the culture- 

 experiments, and its exclusion, to some extent at 

 least, from the surface of wounds treated anti- 

 septically by Lister's method, is an advantage in 

 favor of the micrococcus in the latter case ; for we 

 know that this may multiply freely in the absence 

 of oxygen in the pus of a closed abscess. 



While there is no question as to the injurious 

 effects of putrefactive bacteria in the discharges 

 from wounds when these are retained upon an 

 absorbent surface, or in a sinus or pus-cavity, the 

 role of the micrococcus of pus has not been so 

 well established. According to one view, inflamma- 



Fig. 29. 



