24 ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF WOUNDS. 
to the corresponding parts of the body without forming any 
gaps. 
The effect of these bandaging materials explains itself as 
follows: ; 
If there are no infectious germs present in the wound, their 
introduction can only take place from the outside, and al- 
though these porous bandaging materials permit the air to 
come on the surface of the wound, still all the germs suspended 
in the air are mechanically filtered through the bandage, so 
that, as other bodies are prevented from entering the wound, 
only the bandaging material is left to transmit infection. As 
the latter comes in use only in an aseptic condition, that is, 
free from infectious germs, so that the pure wound does not 
get infected from the outside, complications cannot take place. 
In the further course another possibility arises that the thus 
aseptically kept wound may get infected; the separated wound 
discharges would gradually push forward and would serve 
the micro organisms as an entering channel, but this forward 
gushing under the bandage is prevented because the porous 
bandaging material absorbs the discharges. Only in longer 
lasting, profuse discharges could such possibilities take effect, 
notwithstanding the porosity of the bandage. 
That the procedure just described to prevent wound infec- 
tion is not only a formation of clearly theoretical delibera- 
tions, but can be also carried out practically has been proven 
by NEUBER, but we have to take into consideration that we 
can get the same results quicker and cheaper if we substitute 
several points of this modus operandi by other rules. Thus, 
for instance, the preparation of germ free bandaging material 
is a very tedious procedure without the application of such 
chemical agents that kill vegetable germs, therefore, nowadays 
these bandages are impregnated with such substances, which 
we will know later as disinfectants. In this mode the germs 
contained in the bandage are killed and at the same time these 
bandages are furnished with a supply of disinfecting remedies 
that protect the wound against invading germs by making the 
discharges absorbed by the bandage unfit as a nutritive me- 
dium for microbes. 
