ANTISEPTIC MODE OF TREATING WOUNDS. 67 
fulness after surgical encroachment, necessitates a change of 
bandage. : 
[One of the main indications of sepsis is more or less exten- 
sive swelling. Aseptic wounds, as a rule, swell very little — 
A. H. BJ 
Amongst the many causes to which an increased painful- 
ness of a wound, especially the nondisappearance of present 
pain, is due, we will only mention the one that has any rela- 
tion with the bandage, namely, pressure on any part by the 
bandage. If the bandage is put on too tight it necessarily 
presses the soft parts, especially in the hoof, and creates pain. 
Profuse exudation may be the cause for change of bandage, 
especially in a case where an articular cavity sheath of a tendon 
etc., which has been opened, furnishes its normal exudation, 
and then easily saturates through the bandage. Although 
this saturation of the bandage with the secretion of serous or 
synovial membranes is not an absolute indication for chang- 
ing the bandage, it is a good idea to do so, as these serous se- 
cretions form an excellent nutritive channel for micro organ- 
isms. Though we could, by placing over such bandage that 
has imbibed pure serous secretions a thick layer of disinfected 
bandaging and fastening it with a band, avoid bad results, it is 
not advisable to allow such cases to go into extremes, espe- 
cially in country practice, where the patient is not seen every 
day. 
If the saturation of the bandage with bland exudations was 
not such as to be decisive for the change of the bandage, 
every imbibition by the bandage of exudations other than 
bland, which are immediately recognizable on the body tem- 
perature, must lead us to put on another bandage, for other- 
wise the whole antisepsis of the wound is illusory. That a bad 
fitting, loose bandage does not perform its function and is 
therefore worse than no bandage whatever, is a fact which is 
well known, therefore, it goes without saying that the loosen- 
ing of a bandage always necessitates a change. 
In conclusion, we may mention ‘one more symptom on 
which, in human surgery, a certain value is placed; I mean 
