The Evolution of Bacteriology 25 



in which he expressed himself convinced that the causes 

 of these diseases must come from without the body. Bill- 

 roth, however, strongly opposed such an idea, asserting 

 that fungi had no especial importance either in the processes 

 of disease or in those of decomposition, but that, existing 

 everywhere in the air, they rapidly developed in the body 

 as soon as through putrefaction a "Faulnisszymoid" (putre- 

 factive ferment), or through inflammation a " Phlogisti- 

 schezymoid" (inflammatory ferment), supplying the neces- 

 sary feeding-grounds, was produced. 



In 1873 Obermeier observed that actively motile, flexible 

 spiral organisms were present in large numbers in the 

 blood of patients in the febrile stages- of relapsing fever. 



In 1875 the number of scientific men who had entirely 

 abandoned the doctrine of spontaneous generation and 

 embraced the germ theory of disease was small, and most 

 of those who accepted it were experimenters. A great 

 majority of medical men either believed, like Billroth, that 

 the presence of fungi where decomposition was in progress 

 was an accidental result of their universal distribution, or, 

 being still more conservative, adhered to the old notion 

 that the bacteria, whose presence in putrescent wounds as 

 well as in artificially prepared media was unquestionable, 

 were spontaneously generated there. 



Before many of the important bacteria had been dis- 

 covered, and while ideas upon the relation of micro-organ- 

 isms to disease were most crude, some practical measures 

 were suggested that produced greater agitation and incited 

 more observation and experimentation than anything sug- 

 gested in surgery since the introduction of anesthetics 

 namely, antisepsis. 



"It is to one of old Scotia's sons, Sir Joseph Lister, 

 that the everlasting gratitude of the world is due for the 

 knowledge we possess in regard to the relation existing 

 between micro-organisms and inflammation and suppura- 

 tion, and the power to render wounds aseptic through 

 the action of germicidal substances." * 



Lister, convinced that inflammation and suppuration 

 were due to the entrance of germs from the air, instru- 

 ments, fingers, etc., into wounds, suggested the employ- 

 ment of carbolic acid for the purpose of keeping sterile 

 the hands of the operator, the skin of the patient, the 

 *Agnew's "Surgery," vol. i, chap. n. 



