54 ON THE ANTISEPTIC SYSTEM 



and, so far as I am able to judge, to any other antiseptic agent with which we 

 are at present acquainted. It presents, indeed, a remarkable combination of 

 advantages. In the first place, it possesses the essential requisite of being 

 a most potent poison for the low forms of life which determine putrefaction, 

 and it retains this power even though diluted to such a degree as to be almost 

 entirely unirritating to the tissues of the human body. In the second place, 

 it is volatile, and its vapour is quite efficacious as an antiseptic. This gives 

 it a great advantage over chloride of zinc or any other non-volatile substance, 

 enabling the dressings impregnated with the acid to exert their influence not 

 only upon objects in actual contact with them, but also upon the air in their 

 vicinity. Again, carbolic acid is a local anaesthetic, and exercises a most sooth- 

 ing influence upon a painful wound. Lastly, carbolic acid is soluble in a variety 

 of liquids of very different properties, so different, for example, as water and the 

 fixed oils ; and each of these solutions has its own special value in practice, a point 

 to which I shall have occasion to allude further on in this communication. 



And now, before speaking of some cases treated with carbolic acid on the 

 antiseptic system, I wish to direct your attention to an experiment illustrating 

 the germ theory of putrefaction. It is on this theory that the antiseptic system 

 of treatment is based ; and I venture to say that, without a belief in the truth 

 of that theory, no man can be thoroughly successful in the treatment. If any 

 one believe that putrefaction, through atmospheric influence, is due to the 

 operation of the atmospheric gases alone upon the putrescible materials, he 

 will be perpetually meeting with the most perplexing anomalies, and will be 

 liable to commit the most serious practical blunders ; the truth being that, 

 on the one hand, the complete exclusion of the gases of the air affords no security 

 against the occurrence of putrefaction, and that, on the other hand, the freest 

 admixture of air with the putrescible contents of a wound or abscess will fail 

 to induce putrefactive changes, if the germs of that air have been removed by 

 filtration or deprived of vitality by a germ-poison. Of this I might, if time 

 permitted, give several very striking illustrations from practical surgery. 



The experiment which I wish to bring under your notice is a modification 

 of one described by Pasteur,^ not, indeed, as originated by himself, but by 

 M. Chevreul. It is so simple, and, at the same time so conclusive, that it should, 

 I think, if believed, carry conviction to the minds of all. To myself the state- 

 ment of Pasteur, confirmed as it is by the report of the Commission of the 

 French Academy, before whom this, as well as various others of his experiments 

 was performed, was perfectly satisfactory. But there was one reason that 

 made me anxious to repeat the experiment as bearing upon the antiseptic 



^ Comptes Rendus, vol. 1, p. 306. 



