CHAPTER VI 

 SUPPURATION AND SEPTIC CONDITIONS 



THE subjects of septic infection and of suppuration are of 

 great practical importance, and a knowledge of their 

 etiology is one of the main factors which have conduced 

 to the great advances that were made during the Victorian 

 era in the treatment of wounds, whether accidental or 

 made by the surgeon's knife. 



Ogston in 1881 and Rosenbach in 1884 demonstrated 

 that micro-organisms are almost invariably present in 

 the pus of acute abscesses, and these observations were 

 repeatedly confirmed by subsequent investigators. A 

 number of experiments were then initiated in order to 

 ascertain whether these organisms bear a causal relation 

 to the phenomena of suppuration or are merely accidenta ly 

 present. These experiments showed that a large number 

 of organisms can produce suppuration, and render it 

 certain that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the 

 suppurative and septic conditions met with spontaneously, 

 or occurring after surgical interference, are due to the action 

 of micro-organisms. The chief of these are several micrococci 

 (commonly known as staphylococci, and the infections which 

 they produce, as staphylococcic infections) and streptococci. 



Under the terms " suppuration " and " septic diseases " 

 are included such varied conditions as abscesses, boils and 

 carbuncles, cellulitis, osteomyelitis, erysipelas, gonorrhoea, 

 infective endocarditis, pyaemia, septica3mia and saprsemia, 

 puerperal fever, and hospital gangrene. 



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