28 BACTERIOLOGY. 
in erysipelatous inflammations secondary to injury by 
Wilde, Orth, von Recklinghausen, Luthomsky, Bill- 
roth, Ehrlich, Fehleisen, and others, agreeing that in 
these conditions micro-organisms could always be de- 
tected in the lymph-channels of the subcutaneous 
tissues ; and through numerous experiments on ani- 
mals the pathogenic character of the micro-organisms 
found in erysipelas, suppuration from wounds, diph- 
theria, puerperal fever, etc., was established by Oertel, 
Huester, Birsch-Hirschfeld, Narsiloff, Classen, Letz- 
erich, Leber, Frisch, Eberth, Klebs and others. 
The brilliant results obtained by Lister, in 1863- 
1870, in the antiseptic treatment of wounds, to prevent 
or inhibit the action of infective organisms, exerted a 
powerful influence on the doctrine of bacterial infec- 
tion, causing it to be recognized far and wide and 
gradually lessening the number of its opponents. 
The next important discovery was that of Ober- 
meier, a German physician, who, in 1873, announced 
having found in the blood of patients suffering from 
relapsing fever a minute spiral, actively motile micro- 
organism—the spirochete Obermeieri—which is now 
generally recognized as the specific infectious agent in 
this disease. 
In 1877, Weigert and Ehrlich recommended the use 
of the aniline dyes as staining agents in the micro- 
scopical examination of micro-organisms in cover-glass 
preparations. 
In 1878, Koch published his important work on 
traumatic infectious diseases. 
Hausen, in 1879, reported the discovery of bacilli 
in the cells of leprous tubercles, which, from subsequent 
researches, are believed to be the cause of leprosy. 
