14 BACTERIOLOGY 



ants of which were in the habit of coming direct from the 

 dissecting room to the care of patients in confinement. 



Observing the similarity between puerperal fever 

 and a case of pyemia caused by a dissection wound, he 

 suspected their identity, and the dissection room as 

 their origin. He introduced a rule providing that all 

 attendants from the dissection room must cleanse their 

 hands with soap and water and chlorin solution, to 

 "kill" the suspected poison, before they were allowed to 

 attend the confinement cases. The results were imme- 

 diate and astonishing. The cases of puerperal fever 

 were far below the average for that period among cleanly 

 midwives and attendants. 



But it was in the study of fermentation that the con- 

 nection of bacteria with disease was finally demon- 

 strated. Pasteur, working with fermentation, discov- 

 ered its bacterial origin, and in 1869 demonstrated that 

 a disease of silk- worms was due to bacteria. Lister, 

 in 1867, concluded that suppuration in wounds was a 

 form of fermentation and could be prevented as could 

 fermentation. His results from the application of asep- 

 tic and antiseptic methods in surgery, which methods 

 he originated, supported his conclusions, and he is known 

 to-day as the "Father of modern aseptic surgejy." 

 Davaine, in 1863, produced anthrax in animals by in- 

 jecting them with blood containing anthrax bacilli 

 from animals having the disease. This, however, did 

 not prove the bacillus to be the cause, as there might 



