THE BACTERIA IN SURGICAL LESIONS. 175 



§ 4. — Of the Role of the Bacteria in 

 Surgical Lesions. 



Existence of Bacteria in the Liquids Secreted 

 by Surgical Lesions. — Since the day when thera- 

 peutics has entered upon a road truly scientific, 

 the study of the liquids secreted upon the surface 

 of divided tissues has occupied an important place 

 in the observations and researches of surgeons. 

 Little by little the discussion of operative methods 

 has fallen to the second place, so that to-day, both 

 in the press and in the societies, but little attention 

 is given to the mode of proceeding or to the form 

 of the flaps ; but the greatest interest is taken in 

 all questions touching the pathological physiology 

 of solutions of continuity. Thirty years ago it 

 was to chemistry that we looked for an explana- 

 tion of the complex phenomena which favor or 

 prevent the cicatrization of wounds : to-day it is 

 above all to the microscope ; or rather it is to that 

 part of chemistry which is the most particularly 

 indebted to the microscope for the progress which 

 it has accomplished, that is to say, to the science 

 of ferments, to zymotic chemistry. To show by 

 what labors this tendency has been brought about, 

 to what facts they have led, and what progress has 

 been realized, is the object which we propose to 

 ourselves in this paragraph. 



it is possible to reproduce malarial infection in every form in rabbits in 

 •which it is known in men ; 2, That the malaria produced artificially in 

 animals is generated by organisms existing in the malarial soil at a time 

 when the outbreak of the fever has not yet taken place." — Extract from 

 Leading Article in " Philadelphia Medical Times," March 13, 1880. 



