46 ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF WOUNDS. 
through forge bellows. Now in clinics, if sprays are used at 
all, the steam spray is adopted. The disinfectant is sprayed 
near the point of operation by means of a stream of steam. 
For private practice certainly a steam spray cannot be made 
use of, and if a spray is to be employed at all, it can be pro- 
duced with a Richardson sprayer with which a 2% per cent. 
carbolic solution can be easily converted into a spray. 
It is different in country practice, however. Here, as a rule, 
an operation must be performed suddenly and we are com- 
pelled often to operate in the field without a spray. It is diffi- 
cult, however, to disinfect the air in closed rooms by means of 
a carbolic spray; consequently it is an impossibility if we are 
compelled to perform an operation in the open air. The 
spray, therefore, is of no use in country practice, especially if 
we take into consideration the annoyance to the operator which 
it connected with its use and to the wound itself. In human 
surgery in most cases the use of the spray is dispensed with, 
and only on rare occasions, for instance, on opening the peri- 
tofeal cavity, it is still used. . 
For these reasons we try, in country practice, to protect the 
wound from germs contained in the air by trying to avoid 
all such causes as would aid in bringing these germs into 
the air, the most important of which is the air current. We 
therefore lay or stand the patient in a place where the air is 
as quiet as possible, and avoid, if possible, operations in 
windy weather. We further prevent the patient from mak- 
ing strong movements, especially with the feet, so as not 
to disturb the air. To possibly prevent the latter morphia 
narcosis and also moistening the floor of the operating place 
with sublimate water is recommended. Nothing more can be 
done to disinfect the air, and according to my experience, these 
precautions are ample, for should some micro organisms 
actually enter the wound via the air it would certainly be made 
innocuous by irrigating the wound. 
[The air is no longer regarded as an important medium for 
carrying infection to the wound during an operation, and there- 
fore the famous “Phenicated Cloud” (carbolic spray) is now en- 
