1 88 Sterilization and Disinfection 



best disposed of by cremation, though it is not really necessary as 

 a dead body cannot remain a source of infection for an indefinite 

 period. Esmarch,* who made a series of laboratory experiments 

 to determine the fate of pathogenic bacteria in the dead body, 

 found that in septicemia, cholera, anthrax, mahgnant edema, tuber- 

 culosis, tetanus, and t)T)hoid fever the pathogenic bacteria all die 

 sooner or later, more rapidly during active decomposition than dur- 

 ing preservation of the tissues. 



* "Zeitschrift fiir Hygiene," 1893. 



