BACTERIOLOGY. 



where without interference the seat of disease 

 would have remained localized and been re- 

 moved by nature itself. Thus general miliary 

 tuberculosis occasionally follows operations 

 upon tuberculous bones or joints, general septi- 

 caemia or pyaemia may follow operations upon 

 osteomyelitis, and a general infection may 

 follow incisions in phlegmonous angina and 

 phlegmon. In operations upon malignant car- 

 buncle, generalized anthrax infection which 

 otherwise would not have been forthcoming, 

 sometimes results. Such experiments often 

 bring to us a keen craving to possess, besides 

 the hygienic remedies, " specific " remedies, and 

 to enlarge again the sphere of action of internal 

 medicine, now greatly limited by the surgeon. 

 Conformably to the law regarding stimulus 

 we may expect to cure sometimes without do- 

 ing harm even when we make use of chemical 

 substances. But chemicals often show closer 

 relationship to certain tissues or cells than to 

 others, without our being compelled to assume 

 a true specificity, a fitting of molecule to 

 molecule. Add to this that every stimulus 

 acts more intensely upon an accessible tissue 

 which is already over-stimulated and diseased 

 than upon the corresponding sound tissues or 

 cells and it will be seen that for this reason 

 much smaller quantities of medicine are neces- 



