191 1] Editorials 3^9 



These agents have their own special spheres of usefulness. 

 Antiseptics are used for the preservation of organic liquids, such as 

 Serums, urine, etc. In surgical procedure boric acid, phenol ( i : i oo ) , 

 mercury chlorid (1:20,000), as used in the treatment of wounds 

 and suppurating processes, exert most largely an antiseptic action; 

 they do not destroy the bacteria at the point of the attack, but check 

 the proHferation of the germs in the secretions or exudates and pre- 

 vent bacteria f rom the outside estabHshing themselves in the wound, 

 and quite likely act upon the tissue cells, stimulating them to resist 

 and overwhelm the invading microörganisms. 



While disinfectants are powerful destroyers of bacterial hfe 

 they act injuriously on Hving tissues, so that their appHcation to the 

 body is limited most largely to the cauterizing of infected wounds, 

 or to the destruction of small superficial infected areas. Their 

 widest field of usefulness lies in the disinfection of bacteria-laden 

 excretions or secretions; e. g., the employment of milk of lime, 

 "chlorid of lime," formaldehyd and carbolic acid in the disinfection 

 of the stools of typhoid and cholera patients, the urine in the typhoid 

 and Malta fevers, tuberculous Sputum and the like. In all these 

 cases an insufiicient strength of the destructive agent is little better 

 than none at all. The hands of the surgeon can be superficially 

 disinfected by the application of strong Solutions of mercuric 

 chlorid, iodin, potassium permanganate and oxalic acid, etc., vvhereas 

 under these conditions the use of antiseptics would be entirely with- 

 out avail and dangerous, in that their use might lead to the neglect 

 of really effective measures. Rooms infected by the germs of diph- 

 theria, scarlet fever or tuberculosis can be rendered germ-free by 

 the employment of such powerful destructive gases as formaldehyd 

 and sulfur dioxid; not by the fumes of some delightfully or nox- 

 iously smelling well-advertised preparation, or by the sprinkling of 

 so-called " chlorids " or other trash about the room. 



It cannot be too strongly emphasized that the employment of 

 either an antiseptic or a disinfectant (germicide) is a matter of the 

 greatest importance and that physicians should be prepared to give 

 very definite Instructions in regard to this matter to the patient or 

 the nurse. 



