FURTHER EVIDENCE REGARDING THE EFFECTS OF 

 THE ANTISEPTIC SYSTEM OF TREATMENT UPON 

 THE SALUBRITY OF A SURGICAL HOSPITAL 



[Lancet, 1870, vol. ii, p. 287.] 



In the early part of this year a paper was pubhshed in the Lancet,^ in which 

 I recorded the general results of my practice in the Glasgow Infirmary during 

 three years in which the antiseptic system of treatment had been carried out, 

 as compared with my previous experience in the same institution with ordinary 

 management of the cases. It was there shown that the strict enforcement of 

 the antiseptic principle had been accompanied by a most striking change in 

 the salubrity of the wards under my care, which had been converted from 

 some of the most unhealthy in the kingdom into models of healthiness ; and 

 I ventured, in conclusion, to make the following remark : * Considering the 

 circumstances of those wards, it seems hardly too much to expect that the same 

 beneficent change which passed over them will take place in all surgical hospitals 

 when the principle shall be similarly recognized and acted on by the profession 

 generally.' I have now the pleasure of announcing an instance of the fulfil- 

 ment of this anticipation, as related in the following letter from Dr. Saxtorph, 

 Professor of Clinical Surgery in the University of Copenhagen. 



' My dear Sir. — It is now nearly a year since I left Glasgow, where I had 

 the opportunity of seeing how the antiseptic treatment of wounds is to be carried 

 out. Every surgeon who has seen the remarkable results of this treatment 

 must feel it his duty to imitate you, and dress the wounds after your principles. 

 I therefore, as soon as I came home, adopted your method, and have used it 

 now continually since that time ; and I am happy to say that, although I have 

 not generally succeeded in obtaining complete primary union, except in smaller 

 wounds, still the treatment has proved in other respects extremely satisfactory. 

 The hospital to which I am appointed head surgeon (the Frederik's Hospital) 

 is a very old building — in fact, it is now much more than a hundred years old — - 

 and it contains about 350 medical and surgical beds. In the surgical wards 

 I have room for about 150 patients ; but the usual number during the winter 

 has varied from 100 to 130. Formerly there used to be every year several 

 cases of death caused by hospital diseases, especially by pyaemia ; sometimes 

 arising from the most trivial injuries. Now, I have had the satisfaction that 

 not a single case of pyaemia has occurred since I came home last year, which 

 result is certainly owing to the introduction of your antiseptic treatment. But 



^ See p. 123 of this volume. 



