September 25, 1896. J 



SGIENGE. 



417 



For an external dressing the watery solu- 

 tion was not adapted, as it soon lost the 

 acid it contained, and was irritating while 

 it lasted. For this purpose some organic 

 substances were found to answer well. 

 Large proportions of the acid could be 

 blended with them in so bland a form as to 

 be unirritating ; and such mixtures, while 

 perpetually giving off enough of the volatile 

 salt to prevent organic development in the 

 discharges that flowed past them, served as 

 a reliable store of the antiseptic for days 

 together. 



The appliances which I first used for 

 carrying out the antiseptic principle were 

 both rude and needlessly complicated. The 

 years that have since passed have witnessed 

 great improvements in both respects. Of 

 the various materials which have been em- 

 ployed by myself and others, and their modes 

 of application, I need say nothing except to 

 express my belief, as a matter of long ex- 

 perience, that carbolic acid, by virtue of its 

 powerful afi&nity for the epidermis and oily 

 matters associated with it, and also its 

 great penetrating power, is still the best 

 agent at our disposal for purifying the skin 

 around the wound. But I must say a few 

 words regarding a most important simplifi- 

 cation of our procedure. Pasteur, as we 

 have seen, had shown that the air of 

 every inhabited room teems with microbes ; 

 and for a long time I employed various 

 more or less elaborate precautions against 

 the living atmospheric dust, not doubting 

 that, as all wounds except the few which 

 healed completely by the first intention 

 underwent putrefactive fermentation, the 

 blood must be a peculiarly favorable soil 

 for the growth of putrefactive microbes. 

 But I afterwards learnt that such was by 

 no means the case. I had performed many 

 experiments in confirmation of Pasteur's 

 germ theory, not indeed in order to satisfy 

 myself of its truth, but in the hope of con- 

 vincing others. I had observed that un- 



contaminated milk, which would remain 

 unaltered for an indefinite time if protected 

 from dust, was made to teem with microbes 

 of different kinds by a very brief exposure 

 to the atmosphere, and that the same effect 

 was produced by the addition of a drop of 

 ordinary water. But when I came to ex- 

 periment with blood drawn with antiseptic 

 precautions into sterilized vessels, I saw, to 

 my surprise, that it might remain free from 

 microbes, in spite of similar access of air or 

 treatment with water. I even found that 

 if very putrid blood was largely diluted with 

 sterilized water, so as to diffuse its microbes 

 widely and wash them of their acrid prod- 

 ucts, a drop of such dilution added to pure 

 blood might leave it unchanged for days at 

 the temperature of the body, although a 

 trace of the septic liquid undiluted caused 

 intense putrefaction within twenty-four 

 hours. Hence I was led to conclude that 

 it was the goosser forms of septic mischief, 

 rather than microbes in the attenuated con- 

 dition in which they existed in the atmos- 

 phere, that we had to dread in surgical 

 practice. And at the London Medical Con- 

 gress, in 1881, 1 hinted, when describing the 

 experiments I have alluded to, that it 

 might turn otit possible to disregard alto- 

 gether the atmospheric dust. But greatly 

 as I should have rejoiced at such a simplifi- 

 cation of our procedure, if justifiable, I did 

 not then venture to test it in practice. I 

 knew that with the safeguards which we 

 then employed I could ensure the safety of 

 my patients, and I did not dare to imperil 

 it by relaxing them. There is one golden 

 rule for all experiments upon our fellow- 

 men. Let the thing tried be that which, 

 according to our best judgment, is the most 

 likely to promote the welfare of the pa- 

 tient. In other words, do as you would be 

 done by. 



Nine years later, however, at the Berlin 

 Congress in 1890, I was able to bring for- 

 ward what was, I believe, absolute demon- 



