i64 ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF WOUNDED SOLDIERS 



In the case of compound fractures, the essential objects of the treatment 

 may be attained by using sphnts constructed of stout iron wire bent into the 

 form of the margin of a lateral splint, and strengthened by cross-pieces here 

 and there. Such splints can be readily extemporized by the surgeon himself, 

 by help of two pairs of wre-forceps. The splints should be applied one at 

 each side of the limb, without any padding opposite the seat of injury except 

 the dressing above described, but padded elsewhere with any suitable soft 

 material, an interval being left between such padding and the dressing. The 

 outer layer of oiled-silk or gutta-percha should be applied outside the splints, 

 so that all that will be requisite in order to apply oil to the outer cloth will be 

 to take off the oiled silk with its retaining bandage, and pour on the oil through 

 the ample intervals between the wires. Or the splints might be applied im- 

 mediately external to the bandage that retains the deeper layer of gutta-percha, 

 leaving the outer cloth to be wrapped round external to the splints, cotton or 

 charpie imbued with the antiseptic oil being tucked in under the splints to 

 keep the margins of the gutta-percha in apposition with the limb, the cotton 

 being changed as often as the cloth itself. 



For the sake of the general healthiness of the atmosphere of the crowded 

 military hospitals, it is extremely desirable that even superficial granulating 

 sores should be treated antiseptically. This may be done consistently with 

 rapid healing by washing the sore with watery solution of carbolic acid (one to 

 twenty), and covering it with two or three layers of oiled silk smeared with the 

 oily solution (one to twenty), with well-overlapping folded cloth steeped in 

 similar oil, and over all a piece of gutta-percha tissue and bandage. 



I have suggested in the above method the employment of such materials 

 as are likely to be accessible to the surgeons of both armies. Other means 

 exist, in some respects very superior. But the supply of these is at present 

 limited, and those who possess them probably understand their use. 



