48 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Feb. 



Surgical Sterilization and Sterilizers in Private Practice. 



By EDWARD BOECKMANN, M. D., 



ST. PAUL, MINN. 



Last May I delivered an address in Buffalo, N. Y., be- 

 fore the Association of Military surgeons of the United 

 States, on ''Asepsis in Military Service." This address, 

 printed in the transactions of that society, considers at 

 length the principles of sterilization, and gives at the 

 same time a number of practical points just as applicable 

 in operations in private practice as in operations in mili 

 tary service, for which reason I take the liberty to refer 

 you to that for details. 



With regard to the mechanical and chemic phases of 

 surgical sterilization I have not much to add to or take 

 from what I said last year. Supported by further ex- 

 perience, I can this year more strongly than last recom- 

 mend the 1 to 2 per cent solutions of lysolat 120 degrees 

 F. for combined mechanical and chemic disinfection of 

 the operator's hands and the patient's skin. 



Lysol possesses the undeniable advantage of being at 

 the same time antiseptic and aseptic; it is a happy com- 

 bination of a powerful disinfectant and soap (saponified 

 cresol). It has the dissolving and penetrating properties 

 of an alkaline substance. I know of no agent which at 

 the present time is better adapted and more reliable in 

 the disinfection of the skin than lysol, with the possible 

 exception of alcohol, which certainly, with good reasons, 

 receives the support of the world. Heretofore we have 

 viewed alcohol in the light of a purely mechanical agent 

 in the disinfection of the skin; this" can no longer be suc- 

 cessfully maintained. Alcohol is certainly a potent sol- 

 vent of a great number of substances, sparingly, how- 

 ever, of fats. Alcohol must be viewed as a strong anti- 

 septic, possessing the same significance for the skin as 

 for anatomic preparations, taking up its moisture, pene- 



