ON THE ANTISEPTIC PRINCIPLE OF 

 THE PRACTICE OF SURGERY 



(1867) 



IN the course of an extended investigation into the na- 

 ture of inflammation, and the healthy and morbid con- 

 ditions of the blood in relation to it, I arrived several 

 years ago at the conclusion that the essential cause of 

 suppuration in wounds is decomposition brought about 

 by the influence of the atmosphere upon blood or serum re- 

 tained within them, and, in the case of contused wounds, upon 

 portions of tissue destroyed by the violence of the injury. 



To prevent the occurrence of suppuration with all its 

 attendant risks was an object manifestly desirable, but till 

 lately apparently unattainable, since it seemed hopeless to 

 attempt to exclude the oxygen which was universally re- 

 garded as the agent by which putrefaction was effected. 

 But when it had been shown by the researches of Pasteur 

 that the septic properties of the atmosphere depended not 

 on the oxygen, or any gaseous constituent, but on minute 

 organisms suspended in it, which owed their energy to 

 their vitality, it occurred to me that decomposition in the 

 injured part might be avoided without excluding the air, 

 by applying as a dressing some material capable of de- 

 stroying the life of the floating particles. Upon this prin- 

 ciple I have based a practice of which I will now attempt 

 to give a short account. 



The material which I have employed is carbolic or phenic 

 acid, a volatile organic compound, which appears to ex- 

 ercise a peculiarly destructive influence upon low forms of 

 life, and hence is the most powerful antiseptic with which 

 we are at present acquainted. 



The first class of cases to which I applied it was that 



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