Disinfection and Antiseptics 151 



and should be admitted into all suspicious places. 

 All infected materials, and especially bodies of animals 

 that have died from disease, should either be burned or 

 buried deep to prevent further infection. Dogs, crows 

 and other animals frequently dig up and carry off 

 parts of carcasses. Infectious material is often carried 

 by streams of water, by infected stock-cars, or by litter 

 which may have been in stock-cars. 



ANTISEPTICS 



Antiseptics, commonly called healing remedies, are 

 substances applied to wounds or sores to assist in the 

 healing process. They are used in solutions, or mixed 

 with some fatty substance, as an ointment, or they may 

 be dusted on in the form of a powder. Antiseptics 

 possess no true healing properties; the healing process 

 can be accomplished only by the living cells of the 

 tissues. They only destroy or prevent the growth of 

 germs. Bacteria, which gain entrance to sores and 

 wounds, by growing and multiplying irritate the 

 wound, injure and destroy the living cells of the animal 

 tissue, and often form poisons that may be taken up 

 by the blood and cause serious injury or death from 

 blood-poisoning. If it were not for bacteria, no 

 wound would be fatal, unless some vital organ were 

 mechanically crippled; all wounds would heal with- 

 out complications. In ordinary veterinary practice, 

 wounds, abscesses and sores afford ideal conditions 

 for the growth of bacteria, and unless carefully 

 treated are swarming with them. It is to destroy these 



