32 SPRING-TIME SURGERY 



from this practice. This plan was then aban- 

 doned, since which but one fatality has occurred 

 from infection, following the operation by a mem- 

 ber of the staff. 



Hospital Infection.— In our clinic we have 

 had another obstacle to meet. The late Professor 

 Williams of Edinburg wrote more than a quarter 

 of a century ago advising against the castration 

 of horses when the wind was from the east, and 

 to avoid operating in any kind of weather in the 

 neighborhood of a veterinary college. 



Whatever may be effect of an east wind in 

 England, the dangers of operating in a veterin- 

 ary college are not to be ignored. Prior to the 

 days of antiseptic and aseptic surgery, surgical 

 operations on man in hospitals were followed by 

 an appalling mortality, but the mortality from 

 wound infections in hospitals for man have been 

 very largely overcome. 



Veterinary surgery offers a different problem, 

 especially in the horse, and the details of efficient 

 asepsis and antisepsis in veterinary hospitals is 

 not yet satisfactory. A prime difficulty in our 

 work is cheapness in the construction and equip- 



