I have taken the liberty of bringing here a number of culture tubes containing beautiful specimens of some of the more common and interesting bacteria.  The slimy masses seen on the surfaces of jelly contained in the tubes are many millions of individual plants, which have aggregated themselves in various forms as they have been developed as the progeny of the few parent cells planted in the jelly as a nutrient medium or soil.

With this feeble plea, Mr. President and members of the Society, I hope to create a realization of the necessity for knowledge and interest in the direction of bacteriology; for this is the foundation of modern surgery.  There is, unfortunately, a good deal of abominable work done under the names of antiseptic and aseptic surgery, because the simplest facts of bacteriology are not known to the operator.

Rules to be observed in Operations at Dr. Roberts’ Clinic at the Woman’s Hospital of Philadelphia.—­After wounds or operations high temperature usually, and suppuration always, is due to blood poisoning, which is caused by infection with vegetable parasites called bacteria.

These parasites ordinarily gain access to the wound from the skin of the patient, the finger nails or hands of the operator or his assistants, the ligatures, sutures, or dressings.

Suppuration and high temperature should not occur after operation wounds if no suppuration has existed previously.

Bacteria exist almost everywhere as invisible particles in the dust; hence, everything that touches or comes into even momentary contact with the wound must be germ-free—­technically called “sterile.”

A sterilized condition of the operator, the assistant, the wound, instruments, etc., is obtained by removing all bacteria by means of absolute surgical cleanliness (asepsis), and by the use of those chemical agents which destroy the bacteria not removed by cleanliness itself (antisepsis).

Surgical cleanliness differs from the housewife’s idea of cleanliness in that its details seem frivolous, because it aims at the removal of microscopic particles.  Stains, such as housewives abhor, if germ-free, are not objected to in surgery.

The hands and arms, and especially the finger nails, of the surgeon, assistants, and nurses should be well scrubbed with hot water and soap, by means of a nail brush, immediately before the operation.  The patient’s body about the site of the proposed operation should be similarly scrubbed with a brush and cleanly shaved.  Subsequently the hands of the operator, assistants, and nurses, and the field of operation should be immersed in, or thoroughly washed with, corrosive sublimate solution (1:1,000 or 1:2,000).  Finger rings, bracelets, bangles, and cuffs worn by the surgeon, assistants, or nurses must be removed before the cleansing is begun; and the clothing covered by a clean white apron, large enough to extend from neck to ankles and provided with sleeves.