Walthard. Bacteriologische Untersuchungen des weiblichen Genitalsecretes in Graviditate und im Puerperium. (Arch. F. Gyn., Bd., XLVIII Hft., 2). Bacteriological research of the secret of female genital tract during pregnancy and in the maternity period

The contradictory opinions prevailing in the sciences regarding the use of the so-called objective antiseptics in obstetrics forced W. to discuss the controversial issue of asepticity or non-asepticity of female genital tracts, and he came to some results. The genital tract of an unexamined pregnant woman breaks up in bacteriological relation into two sections: the lower one, rich in microorganisms, and the upper one, completely free of microbes. The border between both sections is located in the middle part of the cervical canal and is caused on the one hand by constantly renewing cervical mucus, which is a poor nutrient medium for microorganisms, and on the other hand, by phagocytosis, which has a place in the lower part of the uterine cervix, due to the property of the vaginal secretion of the vagina. from the surrounding tissues.