TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 115 



antiseptic, that is now receiving the most favor, is a 

 saturated solution of aluminum acetate. Boric acid so- 

 lutions and lead acetate solutions are also highly recom- 

 mended. There is little doubt that such packs are 

 helpful in animals as well as in human beings, but 

 with us they are seldom renewed often enough to 

 be of real service; when a wound is discharging copi- 

 ously, they tend more to do harm than good, unless 

 the packing material is changed as often as it becomes 

 soaked with pus. Furthermore, the wrapping must not 

 be so tight as to dam up the discharge. To apply an 

 antiseptic pack upon a badly discharging foot, for ex- 

 ample, and leave it to become soaked with serosity during 

 the succeeding twenty-four hours, is not good treatment. 

 On the other hand, if the entire covering were changed 

 three or four times a da}^ a certain amount of good 

 w^ould accrue from such treatment. Hot antiseptic baths 

 — a popular sort of treatment in the veterinary profes- 

 sion — are seldom continued long enough, or done clean 

 enough, to be of much service. In short, I doubt very 

 much whether any form of local antiseptic treatment 

 with solutions as they are usually used on animal pa- 

 tients ever turns the course of any local infection. The 

 process goes on in spite of such treatment, and the 

 patient sinks or swims on its own inherent vitality. It is 

 therefore evident that the best recourse we have is the 

 surgical measures above recommended. For example, 

 we could bathe the scrotum in cases of castration- 

 funiculitis hour after hpur, and day after day, without 

 any good effect, but the moment the incision is opened 

 and the collection of pus drained out, the patient's tem- 

 perature falls, and it is soon on the high road to recov- 

 ery. This is the case with practically every venomous 

 wound with which we have to deal ; analogous cases may 

 be cited ad infinitum. 



