PART II. SPECIFIC DISEASES AND THEIR 

 BACTERIA. 



(A) THE PHLOGISTIC DISEASES. 



I. THE ACUTE LOCAL INFECTIVE DISEASES. 



CHAPTER I. 

 WOUND INFECTION; SUPPURATION. 



SUPPURATION was at one time looked upon as a normal 

 and inevitable outcome of the majority of wounds, and 

 although bacteria were early observed in the purulent dis- 

 charges, the insufficiency of information then at hand led to 

 the belief that they were spontaneously developed there. 



From what has already been said about the evolution of 

 bacteriology and the biology and distribution of bacteria, 

 the relationship existing between bacteria and suppuration, 

 and indeed between bacteria and disease in general, is 

 found to be reversed. Instead of being the products of 

 disease, we now look upon the bacteria as the cause. 



With this altered point of view came the question, Whence 

 come the bacteria that cause disease ? The wide distribu- 

 tion of bacteria in the air naturally led surgeons to look 

 upon it as the source of all infection, and to make most 

 strenuous, though mistaken, efforts to disinfect it, that it 

 might not contaminate wounds. 



The development of antiseptic surgery, and the extremes 

 to which the application of germicides was carried, became 

 almost ridiculous, for not only were the hands of the opera- 

 tor, his instruments, sponges, sutures, ligatures, and dress- 

 ings kept constantly saturated with powerful and irritating 



284 



