INFECTIONS OF WOUNDS OF WAR:  WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO GAS GANGRENE

The work which forms the basis of this paper was done in the transportable laboratory assigned to evacuation hospital No. 8 during the St. Mihiel and Argonne-Meuse operations. An effort was made to obtain information of a clinical character, such as that relating to the time between the injury to the patient and the operation; exposure to wet and cold; influence of shock and exsanguination; character of wounds— whether produced by shell fragments or rifle bullets; removal or retention of foreign bodies; impairment of local circulation; involvement of bone; character of the soil over which the fighting occurred, and, lastly, the nature and the influence of operative interference.

Along bacteriologic lines, a special effort was made to secure the more important anaerobes, such as B. welchii, Vibrion septique, B. oedematiens and B. sporogenes. The hemolytic and nonhemolytic varieties of streptococci were studied in cases in which gangrene had developed and