GERMS INTO THE BLOOD, 



In some instances it seems that the disease-germs 

 gain access to lymphatic vessels, and grow and 

 multiply there, causing abscess in some of the lym- 

 phatic glands. The blood is sometimes infected as 

 well, while in some cases, in which there is serious 

 inflammation of lymphatic glands, it appears to escape 

 contamination. 



The living particles of contagious germinal matter 

 readily find their way into the blood if there is an 

 open wound upon any part of the body, and if, as is 

 not unfrequently the case in patients suffering from 

 wounds, the blood is not in a healthy state, the poison 

 grows and multiplies rapidly. To introduce cases of 

 contagious fever into a ward where a number of 

 persons who have undergone surgical operations are 

 lying, would be a cruel and, though not so in law, a 

 criminal act. To place a surgical case in a medical 

 ward in which fever cases of any kind are admitted, is 

 most dangerous. Even slight wounds like those made 

 in operations upon the eye do not heal readily, and out 

 of a number of such cases a large percentage will 

 certainly go wrong. Accoucheurs are well aware of 

 the horrible fatality of contagious poisons when intro- 

 duced among lying-in women, and are but too often 

 painfully familiar with the dread certainty with which 

 these minute germs make their way into the blood, 

 poison the living matter of the body, and destroy life 

 in the puerperal state. For this reason lying-in 

 wards can never be maintained in any general 



N 2 



