THE MICROBES OF HUMAN DISEASES. 235 



should be gaping : there is in this case a true inocula- 

 tion. Such is the case in a post-mortem wound. The 

 experiments of T4denat, of Lyons, show that when 

 decomposition has not begun in the corpses of healthy 

 persons, who have died by violence, the autopsy pre- 

 sents no danger ; but this is not the case when death 

 is due to an infectious disease, pyaemia, erysipelas, etc. 

 On the other hand, the puncture will have no evil 

 results if the bleeding is profuse, or if the microbes 

 and their germs have been removed by immediate 

 suction. Some hours after death, all corpses contain 

 microbes, which have penetrated into the blood owing 

 to the softening of the tissues, and which either come 

 from the external air or from the digestive canal. 



The enormous number of pus-corpuscles which 

 appear in a very short time in the blood was for a 

 long while a problem for physicians. It is now known 

 that these corpuscles have their source not only in the 

 wound, but also in all parts of the vascular system, 

 and especially in the capillaries, according to SchifFs 

 theory. The microbian theory may easily be made 

 to agree with the latter, and Sternberg was the first 

 to suggest that it appears to be the function of the 

 colourless corpuscles to take possession of the bacteria 

 introduced into the blood, and to destroy them. We 

 know, in fact, that the colourless corpuscles do take 

 possession of all foreign particles, such as micrococci and 

 bacteria, introduced into the blood, and in some sense 

 encyst them in their protoplasm. When these bacteria 



