THE GERM THEORY AND COMMON DISEASES. 
177 
The post-mortem took place on the 17th, at 2 p. m. There was 
an abundant collection of pus in the peritoneum. This was 
sown with the greatest care, and blood obtained from the basilic 
and femoral veins was also sown. The pus from the surface of 
the mucous of the uterus, that of the fallopian tubes, and even 
that of a lymphatic from the uterine walls was also sown. The 
result of the cultures was as follows: in all there were long 
chapelets, as above described, without other organisms, except in 
the culture of the pus from the peritoneum, which also showed 
the small pyogenic vibrio, which I have named the organism of 
pus in the paper I published in April, 1878. 
Interpretation of the Disease and of the Death. —After deliv¬ 
ery, the pus which naturally forms in the wounded parts of the 
uterus, instead of remaining pure, became mixed with microscopic 
organisms from outside, especially with that in long chapelets of 
grains and with the pyogenic vibrio. These had passed into the 
peritoneum through the fallopian tubes, and some of them into 
the blood, probably by the lymphatics. Absorption of the pus, 
always very easy and rapid when pure, became impossible from the 
presence of the parasites, whose existence ought to have been pre¬ 
vented from the time of the delivery. 
Second Observation. —On the 14th of March, at Lariboisiere, 
a woman died of puerpural fever. The abdomen had become 
very tympanic before death. By a puncture of the peritoneum, 
pus was removed in abundance and sown, as well as blood from a 
vein in the arm. The culture of the pus gave the long chapelets 
and the pyogenic small vibrio. The culture of the blood gave 
only pure long chapelets. 
Third Observation. —May 17th, 1879, a woman delivered three 
days previous, was sick, as well as the child she was nursing. The 
lochia was full of pyogenic vibrio, and of the organism of the 
furuncles; the latter, however, in small proportion. The milk 
and the lochia being sown, the milk gave the organism in long 
chapelets, but the lochia only that of pus. The mother died. 
There was no autopsy. 
On the 28th of May, a rabbit was inoculated under the abdo¬ 
men with live drops of the preceding culture of the pyogenic 
