PRACTICAL RESULTS OF BACTERIOLOGY. 747 



Thirty years ago the mortality from puerperal septicaemia in 

 lying-in hospitals was frequently something frightful. In the 

 Maison d'Accouchements in Paris the mortality rate at times 

 was as high as one out of every three patients delivered. Similar 

 conditions existed in Berlin and in other European cities. At the 

 present day the mortality from septic infection in similar cases is 

 even less than in private practice. In the Maternity Hospital of 

 New York, for example, in one thousand deliveries there were but 

 six deaths, and but one of these was due to puerperal septicaemia. 



If we take a more general view of the results attained in pre- 

 ventive medicine by the application of modern methods based 

 upon our knowledge of the causes of infectious diseases, we shall 

 find that a very large saving of life has been accomplished, as 

 shown by diminished mortality rates in all parts of the civilized 

 world. This is well illustrated by the carefully kept English 

 statistics. The facts are very concisely stated by Sir Edwin 

 Arnold in an address recently delivered at St. Thomas's Hospital 

 upon Medicine, its Past and Future. He says : 



" One of the high authorities already quoted has furnished a 

 calculation of the salvage of life effected, even during the early 

 years of the present reign, by the commencing improvements in 

 preventive and curative medicine. In the five years from 1 838 to 

 1842 London, with an average population of 1,840,865 persons, had 

 an average annual mortality of 2,557 in every 100,000. In the 

 five years from 1880 to 1884 the average metropolitan population 

 was 3,894,261, and the average annual death-rate 2,101 in each 

 100,000. A calculation will show that these figures represent a 

 saving or prolonging of lives during that lustrum to the number 

 of 96,640. The mean annual death-rate has now been reduced to 

 a point lower than shown in these. It was 22*16 per 1,000 for 

 England and Wales at the commencement of the reign, and it is 

 to-day better than 19*0 per thousand, while in her Majesty's army 

 and navy the diminution of mortality apart from deaths from 

 warfare has proved even more remarkable, and in India, where 

 we used to lose 69 per 1,000 yearly, this has been reduced to 16 

 per 1,000." 



We can not claim that this reduction in the mortality rate is 

 due alone to the development of our knowledge relating to the 

 pathogenic bacteria, for much had been accomplished by practical 

 measures of sanitation before we had any exact knowledge of 

 disease germs. But this exact knowledge has added greatly to 

 our sanitary resources, and has doubtless been an important fac- 

 tor in the reduction in the mortality rate which has occurred 

 within the past twenty-five years. Sir Edwin Arnold, in the ad- 

 dress above referred to, says : 



" A great authority has declared that ' a day will come when 



