STERILIZATION AND DISINFECTION. 175 



after the use of the scissors and penknife, scrubbing the 

 hands and arms for three minutes in hot water and soap 

 to remove all grease and dirt. The scrubbing brush 

 ought to be steamed or boiled before use, and kept in 

 1 : 1000 biniodid of mercury solution. When the soap- 

 suds have been thoroughly washed away with plenty of 

 clean water, the hands and arms are thoroughly washed 

 and soaked for not less than two minutes in a solution of 

 biniodid of mercury in methylated spirit; 1 part of the 

 biniodid in 500 of the spirit. Hands that cannot bear 

 1 : 1000 bichlorid and 5 per cent, carbolic solutions, bear 

 frequent treatment with the biniodid. After the spirit 

 and biniodid have been used for not less than two min- 

 utes, the solution is washed off in 1 : 2000 or 1 : 4000 

 biniodid of mercury solution. 



Catgut cannot be sterilized by boiling without deterio- 

 ration. The present method of preparing it is to dry it 

 in a hot-air chamber and then boil it in cumol, which is 

 afterward evaporated and the skeins preserved in sterile 

 test-tubes or special receptacles plugged with sterile cot- 

 ton. Cumol was first introduced for this purpose by 

 Kronig, as its boiling-point is i68°-i78° C, and thus 

 sufficiently high to kill spores. The use of cumol for the 

 sterilization of catgut has been carefully investigated by 

 Clarke and Miller. 1 



Ligatures of silk and silkworm-gut are boiled in 

 water immediately before using, or are steamed with the 

 dressings, or placed in test-tubes plugged with cotton and 

 steamed in the steam sterilizer. 



At present, in most hospitals, instruments are boiled 

 before using in a 1-2 per cent, soda solution. Plain 

 water has the disadvantage of rusting the instruments, 

 and during the operation they are either kept in the boiled 

 water or in carbolic solution. Andrews makes special 

 mention of the fact that the instruments must be com- 

 pletely immersed to prevent rusting. 



During the operation the wound is frequently washed 



1 Bull, of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Feb. and March, 1896. 



