The treatment of wounds, ulcers, and abscesses.

  • Cheyne, William Watson, Sir, 1852-1932.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The treatment of wounds, ulcers, and abscesses. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    belon,^ to the class of saprophytes, and are generally l)acilli, usually in spore form, yet this is by no means always the case, more especially in hospitals where the dust may contain recently dried particles of pus, scales of skin, &c., in which pyogenic cocci may still remain alive, and which, therefore, coming in contact with the instruments, hands, sponges, &c., may lead to the infec- tion of the wound. Of the older surgical dressings, water dressing, lint, charpie, and, aliove all, poultices were also a frequent source of infection. At the present time, however, the chief source of these organisms is, as I have said, the skin of the patient or the surgeon, and also, to some extent, the dust which settles on surrounding objects. While speaking of the growth of these organisms in wounds, it is of interest to mention one or two points with regard to culture media when grown outside the body. For example, it has been found in the case of many pathogenic bacteria that if grown in the presence of a large quantity of air or free oxygen, they multiply most luxuriantly, but do not produce anything like the amount of poisonous material which they do if air is excluded. It is further important to note that under such circumstances they gradually lose their infective properties, so that after a time they are unable to infect animals when introduced into the bodv. The