142 
NEWS AND SUNDRIES. 
emboli; in septicemia they may only grow locally, the symptoms 
being due to the absorption of their ptomaines; or if they grow 
in the blood they do not form colonies and emboli. Septicemia 
may also be due to other organisms besides micrococci. 
18. There are no facts to support the view that it is the sam 
micrococcus which, under different conditions, cause these various 
diseases. The experiments of conversion of innocent into malig¬ 
nant forms, and vice versa , are unreliable.— The Western Medical 
Reporter. 
Corrosive Sublimate as a Surgical Dressing. —Sir Joseph 
Leister tells us that several instances have recently occurred of re¬ 
sults deviating from his typical experience in antiseptic treatment, 
such as he was in no way prepared to meet with, and in one case 
a fatal event ensued. Casting about for the cause of these 
failures he came to the conclusion, which is a very plausible one, 
that volatile antiseptics, such as he had been using, principally 
eucalyptus and carbolic acid, were unreliable, owing to the very 
fact of their volatility, which not only rendered their proper pre¬ 
paration by the manufacturer very difficult, but also rendered 
them very liable to lose their antiseptic properties in a very short 
time, even when properly prepared. Iodoform, as he says, is not 
so volatile, but his experience does not recommend it as a very 
efficient germicide. 
Dr. Koch’s experience with corrosive sublimate, which is non¬ 
volatile, caused him to turn his attention in this direction, and his 
results have been very satisfactory. 
Sir Joseph Leister says that sublimate combines with albumen 
to form not an albuminate, properly speaking, but a simple mix¬ 
ture of the two, and that this mixture is much less irritating than 
a watery solution of corrosive sublimate; and serum which has 
been passed in small quantities through a gauze containing sub¬ 
limate will not undergo decomposition, though inoculated with 
putrifying materials. 
As the result of the discovery of the less irritating nature of 
the combination of albumen and sublimate, a sero-sublimate gauze 
has been prepared. Sir Joseph Leister finds'that a sero-sublimate 
