BACTERIA IN SURGICAL LESIONS. 



445 



" Micrococci grow, readily, in fluids containing pro- 

 portions of carbolic acid in which bacteria only grow 

 with difficulty" (1. c., 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 

 the presence of 0.25 per 

 cent of boric acid, while B. 

 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. 



Specimen of discharge taken from a 

 case of compound dislocation of 

 the thumb not treated asepti- 

 cally. X 1450. (From Cheyne's 

 "Antiseptic Surgery.") 



