INTRODUCTION 27 



in 1870-71. He not only saw, as others before him had 

 seen, that bacteria were present in diseases following infec- 

 tion of wounds, but described the manner in which the 

 organisms had gained entrance from the point of injury 

 to the internal organs and blood. He expressed the opinion 

 that the spherical and rod-shaped bodies which he saw in 

 the secretions of wounds were closely allied, and he gave to 

 them the designation "microsporon septicum." He believed 

 that the organisms gained access to the tissues round about 

 the point of injury both by the aid of the wandering leuko- 

 cytes and by being forced through the connective-tissue 

 lymph-spaces by the mechanical pressure of muscular 

 contraction. 



On erysipelatous inflammations secondary to injury 

 important investigations were also being made, Wilde, 

 Orth, von Recklinghausen, Lukomsky, Billroth, Ehrlich, 

 Fehleisen, and others agreeing that in these conditions 

 micro-organisms could always be detected in the lymph- 

 channels of the subcutaneous tissues; and through the 

 work of Oertel, * Nassiloff, Classen, Letzerich, Klebs, and 

 Eberth the constant presence of bacteria in the diphtheritic 

 deposits at times seen on open wounds was established. 



Simple and natural as all this may seem to us now, the 

 stage to which the subject had developed when these obser- 

 vations were recorded did not admit of their meeting with 

 unconditional acceptance. The only strong argument in 

 favor of the etiological relation of the organisms that had 

 been seen to the diseases with which they were associated 

 was the constancy of this association. No efforts had been 

 made to isolate them, and few or none to reproduce the 

 pathological conditions by inoculation. Moreover, not a 

 small number of investigators were skeptical as to the 



