MEANS OF DEFENCE AGAINST MICROBES. 257 
We must, in conclusion, rely much more upon 
measures of hygiene than on antiseptics to ward off 
the attacks of the microbes which are factors of 
disease. Even in Lister’s dressing, it is probable 
that the hermetic closing of the wound has, as it is 
shown by Guérin’s process, much more effect than 
earbolic acid, which is shown by direct experiments 
to be a feeble and generally an insufficient antiseptic. 
We have still to speak of the preventive vaccina- 
tions and inoculations on which medicine relies more 
than on antiseptics; but this subject will be better 
discussed in the following chapter, when we have 
spoken of the processes of culture by which the 
liquids destined for these inoculations are prepared. 
