History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

352 History of Medical Practice in Illinoiscago in 1882 and after, which is largely autobiographic. While he was anintern in the Cook County Hospital he set up a bacteriologic laboratory inhis bathroom and made cultures on gelatin,boiled eggs and coagulatedhydrocele fluid of wounds and suture materials. His cotton-stopperedtubes and platinum wire provoked much amusement and ridicule on thepart of his associates. He was primarily a self-taught bacteriologist, guidedby Sternberg's and Klein's books. His firstbacteriologic article was writtenin conjunction with Christian Fenger, whose assistanthe then was,and dealt with the bacteriologic control of antiseptic methods. The circumstancesunder which this work was done are well described in the sketchthat Holmes wrote of Fenger many years afterward:"Some time in the middle of summer (1886) Doctor Fenger gave me asubject to study by experiment and in the literature, which subject hadturned up in our work together. It was the relation of air infection tocontact infection and the danger of each. I fitted up an operating roomin the attic of the Passavant Hospital and after putting it in the bestorder possible, I exposed Petri dishes of nutrient gelatine to the air forten hours and thus attempted to determine the danger of air infection. Ithen exposed similar Petri dishes during the hour or two that we wereengaged in operating in the same room. From a study of these dishes, Idetermined the number of microbes of a pathogenic nature that fell uponeach square inch of surface when the room was closed and when it wasopen and in use. I also made examinations of the silk, the catgut, thelaparotomy sponges and the sterilized instruments before the operation,during the operation and at its close. By these experiments Doctor Fengerconcluded that the danger of air infection was trifling compared with thedanger from contact infection and, as a result of these examinations, Ipublished with Doctor Fenger's name my first article in medical literature."No one can understand the difficulties met with in those days by oneinvestigating a bacteriologic subject in an eleemosynary hospital. ThePassavant Hospital had no operating room facilities other than a gas stove,a copper wash boiler or two, a lot of granite ware wash basins and pitchers,a few slop pails and a few glass jars of sea sponges. There was plenty ofgreen soap, carbolic acid, corrosive sublimate and iodoform. In the drugstores we were able to get antiseptic gauze prepared in Milwaukee by Mr.Schorse. He also sold catgut which he had sterilized. My examinations suggestedthat this sterilization was not always successful."In E. H. Sargent's drug store at125 State street most drugs could bebought, but the articles necessary for bacterial study were ordered foreach customer from Europe. Petri dishes were hard to get and I usedwatch glasses, thin drinking glasses and, at the suggestion of Dr. HenryGradle, whiskey bottles turned on the side. Agar agar was also hard to comeby, and gelatin in those days had many uncanny ways with it.