There have been about thirty attempts made by surgeons to restore patients who were dead in the full acceptance of the term as used at present. Four of these attempts resulted in complete success, others in a partial recovery, and many were without positive result. The number of complete and partial resuscitations, however, are enough to justify a priest in giving conditional absolution or baptism within an hour, or even two hours, after a patient has to all appearance died, especially in accident cases. We do not know when the soul enters the body, and there is the same doubt as to the moment when the soul leaves the body. In these latter cases we should give the patient the benefit of the doubt.
The subject of infection is complicated, and the medical doctrine concerning it is far from certainty despite the multitude of facts presented by bacteriologists, chemists, pathologists, and clinicians. Before the days of bacteriology the term _Infectious_ commonly was applied to diseases produced by no known or definable influence of any person on another, but wherein common climatic or other widespread conditions were thought to be chiefly instrumental in the diffusion. The contagious disease was one transmitted by contact with the patient, either directly by touch, or indirectly through the use of the same articles.
Now we know that many diseases called infectious are caused by micro-organisms, and we group others under this class because we hold theoretically that they have their origin in microbes not yet isolated. Hence we define an infectious disease as one which is caused by a living pathogenic micro-organism, which enters the tissues from without, and is capable of multiplying therein. These micro-organisms have a time of incubation during which a poison is made in the tissues, and this brings about the intoxication we call the disease.
Infection is a general term that includes contagion; and contagious diseases are infective diseases that may be transmitted directly or indirectly from patient to patient.
The pathological micro-organisms with which we shall deal in this article are (1) the Schizomycetes or Fission-Fungi, which are microscopical organisms that multiply by fission, and are commonly known as Bacteria; and (2) a few Protozoa, which are animal micro-organisms.