THE GERM THEORY AND COMMON DISEASES. 
175 
of that blood, taken even in a single organ, the heart for instance, 
did not prove equally fecund ; this is easily conceded. On one 
occasion it occurred that out of ten fresh hens, inoculated with 
infectious blood, which had began to contain the microbe, three 
died, and seven did not show any signs of being affected. The 
microbe, indeed, at the time when it began to penetrate the blood, 
may exist by unity in some small drops, and not at all in others, 
surrounding. It would then, I conceive, be of great utility to dis¬ 
cover a case of furuncular diathesis, in a patient who would allow’ 
himself to be pricked in several parts of the body, remote from 
furuncles already formed, or in way of formation, in order topre 
pare numerous cultures, simultaneous or otherwise, from the gen¬ 
eral circulation. I am certain that successful cultures of the 
small organism of furuncles would be more or less frequently 
discovered. 
Section II. —Upon Osteomyelitis. 
For this disease I have only one observation to record, which 
I owe to the kindness of Dr. Lannelongue. The valuable paper 
published by him on this disease is already well known, as well as 
the possibility of its curability by trepanation of the bone, fol¬ 
lowed by antiseptic washes and dressings. At his request, on the 
14th of February, 1880, I visited St. Eugetiy hospital, where an 
operation was about to be performed on a little girl twelve years 
of age. A large swelling involved the right knee, from the mid¬ 
dle of the thigh to a point below the calf of the limb; there was 
no communication with the surface. The child being chloro¬ 
formed, a long incision was made below the knee, from which pus 
escaped freely, the tibia being exposed and denuded to a great 
extent. The bone was trephined in three places, through each of 
which the pus flowed in abundance. The pus of the outside and 
of the inside of the bone was carefully collected,,to be afterwards 
examined and cultivated. The direct microscopic examination of 
both portions was most interesting. It was evident that they con¬ 
tained in great quantity an organism similar to that of the furun¬ 
cles by couples of two or four grains, and by masses of these, 
some with well defined outlines, others less marked, and with 
