SURGICAL ANTISEPSIS. 265 



yet ether has been found not to aid the action of antiseptics on 

 the hands to the same extent as alcohol. What has just been 

 stated in regard to the sterilization of the hands of the surgeon 

 applies, of course, also to the field of operation. 



The use of rubber gloves and of various other impervious 

 coatings for the hands are extensively employed, and the rub- 

 ber gloves give excellent results where it is feasible to use them. 



The various coatings which have been recommended from 

 time to time seem not to have found general adoption for the 

 reason that all of them soon crack or wear off during the opera- 

 tion. The use of sterilized rubber gloves has the double ad- 

 vantage of lessening the chances of infecting the patient and of 

 insuring the operator against infecting himself when handling 

 wounds which are already infected, as in the case of syphilitic 

 infection. Rubber gloves may be sterilized by steam or by the 

 use of disinfecting solutions. Ordinary cotton gloves seem 

 also to afford a considerable degree of protection for the 

 patient and the operator. 



Materials used for sutures and dressings are best sterilized 

 by steam, preferably in an autoclave. All sutures may be 

 sterilized with steam without injuring them except catgut 

 which swells up and softens and becomes useless when treated 

 in this way. Catgut is of such great value as a suture material 

 particularly for deeply buried sutures and in abdominal sur- 

 gery on account of the fact that the catgut does not have to be 

 removed, but is absorbed by the tissues that every effort has 

 been made to devise a sure method for its sterilization. Con- 

 sisting as is does of the animal intestine it is apt to contain 

 pathogenic bacteria the colon bacillus at least derived from the 

 feces with which it was in contact, and is to be regarded as 

 essentially infectious in itself. So far no certain means of 

 sterilization have been devised for catgut, though very many 

 experiments have been made to accomplish it. The methods 

 which seem to have geven the best results all consist in sub- 



