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 Tédenat, of Lyons, show that whe. 
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, pyzemia, 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 Schiff’s 
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 ofall foreign particles, such as micrococci and 
bacteria, introduced into the blood, and in some sense 
encyst them in their protoplasm. When these bacteria 
