THE LABORATORY OF THE ECOLE NORMALE. 283 



using the compresses, to put them into a hot-air stove, 

 at a temperature of 150 degrees, which is more than 

 sufficient to kill all the germs of common organisms. 



I have,' he added, ' represented the facts as they 

 have appeared to me, and I have hazarded the interpre- 

 tation of them ; but I do not disguise from myself that, 

 in the domain of medicine, it is difficult to withdraw 

 oneself entirely from a pre-existing subjective bias ; 

 neither do I forget that the medical and veterinary 

 studies are foreign to myself: therefore I earnestly 

 desire judgment and criticism. While I am little 

 tolerant of frivolous contradiction or of prejudice, 

 despising as I do that vulgar scepticism which would 

 erect doubt into a system, I honour that militant 

 scepticism which makes doubt the basis of a method, 

 whose motto is " More light." ' 



Since these ideas have penetrated further into 

 practice ; puerperal fever, I was told lately by a dis- 

 tinguished medical man, is hardly known in the 

 Maternity Hospital. The employment of a solution 

 of one to a thousandth of corrosive sublimate, which 

 is one of the best antiseptics, gives excellent results, 

 and keeps off all danger. May it not be permitted 

 to hope that puerperal fever will soon disappear 

 in the same way that purulent infection has disap- 

 peared in hospitals, since the introduction of Lister's 

 dressings ? 



