In this foul atmosphere amputation did not arrest hospital gangrene; the disease almost invariably returned.

Almost every amputation was followed finally by death, either from the effects of gangrene or from the prevailing diarrhea and dysentery.

Nitric acid and escharotics generally in this crowded atmosphere, loaded with noxious effluvia, exerted only temporary effects; after their application to the diseased surfaces, the gangrene would frequently return with redoubled energy; and even after the gangrene had been completely removed by local and constitutional treatment, it would frequently return and destroy the patient.

As far as my observation extended, very few of the cases of amputation for gangrene recovered.

The progress of these cases was frequently very deceptive.