DISINFECTION OF INFECTED CARRIERS, ETC. 53 
domestic animals, on account of their mode of living, and on 
account of the very frequent lack of proper care of the skin, 
the vicinity of the wound is full of dirt and dried exudations. 
This fact is often overlooked while the surface of the wound 
is being treated with all sorts of disinfecting material. This 
neglect of the vicinity of the wound permits a luxurious 
growth of pathogenic germs in the unshorn hair. Very fre- 
quently I have heard such treatment of wounds called anti- 
septic. 
6. THE WOUND. 
From a theoretical standpoint we distinguish two kinds of 
wounds—aseptic and infected wounds. In practice this differ- 
ence is also justified, for experience has taught us that it is a 
good deal easier to keep a non-infected wound aseptic, than to 
make an infected wound aseptic. We therefore have to take 
measures accordingly, that is, we have to proceed differently 
with infected than non-infected wounds. Practice has proven 
that it is safer to consider every wound that we did not make 
ourselves and know to be aseptic, as infected and to treat it 
accordingly. The reasons for this is plain. 
First—We usually get patients to be treated which have 
had an open wound for some time. 
Second—The mode of living and use of our domestic an- 
imals causes infection to take place simultaneously with the 
* wounding. 
Third—We are not able to diagnose positively the prelim- 
inary stages of a wound infection. All symptoms which are, 
as a rule, considered a criterion for a wound infection, namely, 
rise of temperature, changes in the wound, its color, exuda- 
tion, swelling, etc., appear only in the advanced stages of in- 
fection and occasionally without the latter. 
The treatment of aseptic wounds is a purely prophylactic 
one, that is, it is only necessury to prevent pathogenic germs 
from entering the wound in the usual ways. This is one rea- 
son why I am not going to discuss the necessary modes of 
procedure at present, as we will take it up later, when meth- 
ods of wound treatment will be described. However, disin- 
