INFECTION OF WOUNDS. 15 
Il. INFECTION OF WOUNDS. 
As remarked in the introduction, we have to look for the 
cause of the so-called accidental diseases of wounds in the 
micro organisms which enter into the wound and live and mul- 
tiply there. As our therapeutic percautions must be turned 
towards the removal of the causes of a disease, the indication 
for the surgeon is to keep away those pernicious living sub- 
stances from the wound and make the ones that have invaded 
it harmless. To reach this latter purpose it is not sufficient 
to put a disinfectant on the wound, as has been heretofore fre- 
quently supposed, but we have to go further and close up all 
sources which are apt to bring micro organisms into it. Only 
the knowledge of all possible sources of infection enables us 
to take the necessary measures to check effectually such an in- 
fection; without this knowledge we will always more or less 
grope in the dark and unconsciously make a mistake in either 
one or another direction. KOCHER distinguished two dif- 
ferent forms of infection: 
First—Spontaneous infection. 
Second—Infection by contact. 
DR. KOCHER thought spontaneous infection possibly 
originated on account of the whole body being infiltrated with 
micro-organisms, the same taking effect only if by some cause, 
for example, traumatism, a favorably nutritive medium for 
these organisms was created; although recently it has been 
proven, with the aid of bacteriological culture methods, that, 
in normal circumstances, vegetable parasites do not exist in 
the textures. Infection has a certain justification in infectious 
diseases, as for instance, in glanders and tuberculosis. Ifa 
wound arises in an individual affected with one of these dis- 
eases, we can hardly expect typical healing to follow, but we 
must be prepared for a localization of the specific process in 
the wound. BECKER also proved that in cases of osteo- 
