50 ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF WOUNDS. 
clothing, which are often used to carry instruments, already 
none too clean. 
To properly disinfect instruments they should be placed 
in a three per cent. solution of carbolic acid, if no carbolic 
acid is at hand in a o.1 per cent. solution of mercuric chlorid, 
as the instruments get but little affected, and stay sharp. 
TRENDELENBURG in BONN has his instruments 
lying permanently in a sublimate solution; although they 
turn black on this account, and separate occasionally, the 
cutting edge of the instruments does not get affected. (See 
Annotation, Page 32.) 
The one instrument which is especially noteworthy on 
account of its infectiousness, is the sponge. It is still used 
very often, but possesses so many dangers, that I often 
wonder how, even in human surgery, there can still be de- 
fenders of the sponge. According to KUEMMELL the 
disinfection of sponges can be accomplished with sufficient 
safety by boiling them out and putting them for four or five 
minutes in a 5 per cent. solution of carbolic acid or 0.1 per 
cent. sublimate water. But it is well to get used to other 
utensils, because disinfected sponges are not always to be 
had in country practice. To clean the part or place to be 
operated on, I prefer to use bandage wadding, and I have 
had no cause thus far to resort to the sponge. 
As to the disinfection of bandaging material, there is but 
little to be said, for as mentioned before it is prepared by soak- 
ing the bandage material with the desired disinfectant. I 
prepare my disinfected bandage material myself by simply 
soaking it prior to putting on the bandage, in the disinfection 
fluid and pressing it out moderately. This procedure is 
cheap and besides necessary, as dry bandages fit badly to the 
form of the body and absorb fluids to a greater extent. 
[The methods described above are not entirely adequate 
and may prove a source of repeated disappointment. Of 
course cleanliness alone is half the battle in dealing with in- 
struments as well as in all the steps of aseptic treatment, but 
to simply bath even very clean instruments in a 5 per cent. 
