194 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



PUERPERAL FEVER. 



According to Heiberg, 1 micrococci have been found 

 in the form of chains and zooglcea in all organs 

 affected in this disease. Heiberg's micrococcus has 

 not yet been artificially cultivated, consequently we 

 cannot say that the microbe is the real cause of this 

 highly infectious disease. 2 The infectiousness of 

 puerperal fever is now well established, although 

 the microbe or microbes which give rise to the 

 different symptoms classed under the name of 

 puerperal fever have not been isolated. Certain 

 poisonous ptomaines have been isolated by Bourget 

 from the viscera of a woman who died of puerperal 

 fever, and subsequently he proved the existence of 

 the same ptomaines in the urine of patients suffer- 

 ing from the same disease. Pasteur and others are 

 convinced that with the possible exception of cases 

 where, by the presence either of internal or external 

 abscesses, the body before confinement contains 

 microbes, the antiseptic treatment ought to be 

 infallible in preventing puerperal fever from declar- 

 ing itself. It may be stated that the introduction 

 of the antiseptic and aseptic methods has produced 

 not only a remarkable diminution of mortality, but 

 also of the morbidity or illness incident to the 

 puerperal state. 



1 Die Puerperalen und Pydmiochen Processe. 



2 In 1889 a midwife carried the contagion to five different 

 women, all of whom died of the disease (The Echo, Sept. 17, 



