Even before the bacterial origin of the disease was accepted it had been suggested to use _antiseptic applications_, either in watery solution or combined with oil or some unguent; this is now the ideal method of local treatment, the difficulty being only to find that which shall be efficacious as an antiseptic, yet not injurious in other ways. Compresses wrung in solutions of various antiseptics are often serviceable. The following preparation has given satisfaction: Resorcin (or naphthalin) 5, ichthyol 5, mercurial ointment 40, lanolin 50. The proportions of these ingredients may be varied, and the amount of ichthyol sometimes increased, especially when the skin is not too tender. The affected parts are anointed with this, and then covered with oiled silk or other impermeable material, simply to prevent its absorption by the dressings; the parts are then enveloped in a light dressing and bandaged. Credé’s silver ointment has also proved useful. As the disease becomes mitigated the ointment may be reduced with simple lard, and discontinued when local signs have disappeared. Absorption of any of these preparations may be hastened by scratches over the affected area with the sharp point of a knife. Treatment of _threatening phlegmon_, or phlegmonous erysipelas, must be more radical, and consists of free incision down to the depth of the deepest tissues involved. In treating dissecting and other septic wounds of the fingers incision should be made to the tendon sheaths, even to the bone. It is only by such radical measures that worse disaster may be avoided. Some aggravated local cases are treated by a series of deep incisions with the use of the curette, the surface after careful clearing being kept buried under an antiseptic solution (silver lactate 1 to 500) or ointment. RELATION OF LYMPH NODES AND GRANULATION TISSUE TO INFECTION. In connection with erysipelas and the _role_ of the lymphatics, it is advisable to consider the relation and behavior of the lymph nodes and granulation tissue to infecting agents. Depending on the virulence of the infectious material, the site of infection, and the variety of the microbe will be its arrival in these protective filters. Then follows a series of cycles of maximum and minimum activity in the nodes, during the former the bacteria almost disappearing. The more pathogenic the microörganism the more certain the destruction of the lymph node, or perhaps of the individual. The well-known enlargement of the nodes is due almost solely to an increase in their lymphoid elements. Halban, who demonstrated these cyclic variations in the contents of the lymph nodes, is inclined to insist on an intimate relation between them and the temperature variations noted in cases of septic infection.