BACTERIA IN SURGICAL LESIONS. 455 



but Ogston is evidently mistaken in ascribing the 

 contradictory results at first obtained to the fact 

 that the micrococcus in question is anaerobic ; for 

 while this is true, and it can doubtless grow in the 

 absence of oxygen, the writer has found no diffi- 

 culty in cultivating it through successive gener- 

 ations, in the culture-flasks described on page 177, 

 in bouillon made from the flesh of a rabbit or of a 

 chicken, and in the presence of atmospheric air, 

 with which these flasks are two-thirds filled when 

 prepared in the manner indicated. Thus, in my 

 experiments upon the germicide power of various 

 therapeutic agents, a pure-culture of this micro- 

 coccus was maintained through many successive 

 generations, culture No. 1 having been inoculated 

 with a drop of pus from a whitlow, obtained at the 

 instant of its escape from a deep incision. The 

 true explanation of the contradictory results ob- 

 tained by Ogston is doubtless that given by Cheyne, 

 viz. : that when no development occurred in cul- 

 ture-solutions inoculated with the pus of acute 

 abscesses, it was because the micrococci were 

 already dead. Wernich has shown that during 

 the multiplication of various bacterial organisms 

 in a limited amount of nutritive pabulum, chemical 

 products are evolved fatal to the vitality of these 

 organisms. 



In conclusion, the writer would suggest that 

 those who desire to make themselves familiar with 

 the organisms to which a pathogenic role has been 



