282 LOUIS PASTEUR. 



organisms, which develop themselves on the surface of 

 wounded parts, and from thence spread themselves, 

 in one form or another, by the medium of the 

 blood or of the lymphatics, over different parts of 

 the body. Here the various morbid symptoms are 

 determined by the nature of the parasite and the 

 general constitution of the patient. Pasteur is con- 

 vinced that, with the possible exception of cases 

 where, by the presence either of internal or external 

 abscesses, the body, before confinement, contains 

 microscopic organisms, the antiseptic treatment ought 

 to be infallible in preventing puerperal fever from 

 declaring itself. The employment of carbolic acid 

 may be of great service ; but its smell, and often the 

 melancholy association of ideas which it awakens, 

 might render it unsuitable for women in labour. 

 There is not the same objection to concentrated 

 solutions of boric acid, which, at the ordinary tem- 

 perature, contain from thirty to forty grammes of acid 

 to one litre of water. 



' Would it not be very useful,' said Pasteur one 

 day, when developing his ideas and observations before 

 the Academy of Sciences, ' to place always by the bed- 

 side of each patient the concentrated and warm solu- 

 tion of boric acid, with compresses to be very fre- 

 quently renewed, after having been soaked in the 

 solution, these applications being begun immediately 

 after the confinement? It would also be prudent, before 



