Page:Wound infections and some new methods for the study of the various factors which come into consideration in their treatment.djvu/13

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WOUND INFECTIONS.


CHAPTER I.

Biological Evolution of Wound Infections.

There are a number of quite elementary problems which must be solved before we can arrive at any really effective treatment of wound infections. A very brief consideration of the facts will bring us face to face with the questions to which we have to find an answer.

In this war practically every wound is heavily infected. The chain of cause and consequence seems to be as follows: The clothes and skin of the soldier on war service become contaminated with all manner of filth containing pathogenic organisms and spores; the projectile takes these in with it, and it implants them far in—in point of fact, far beyond the reach of any prophylactic applications of antiseptics.


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