76 ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF WOUNDS. 
soap and brush in a rather large circumference the vicinity of 
the wound is washed and finally disinfected with sublimate 
water, which is either directly poured on, by means of a pot, 
irrigator, etc., or is put on with the aid of a wadding or jute 
compress. After this disinfection of the vicinity of the wound 
it is irrigated thoroughly with sublimate water and only now 
follows the examination, with disinfected hands and instru- 
ments. 
These manipulations may seem tedious, but they are per- 
formed much faster than they are described here, and habit 
has much to do with it, so that I proceed in the described 
method nearly entirely mechanically. By these means the dan- 
ger of wound infection during the examination is nearly entire- 
ly prevented, and then I am of the opinion that many of the 
wounds would heal much better if they were not permanently 
infected through their uselessly coming in contact with the 
instruments, as well as hands, of both professional and non- 
professional persons, that are not disinfected. 
Similar preparations, as described at the examination of 
wounds, are necessary to perform operations with antiseptic 
precautions. The field of operation stands first in need of 
being prepared. Though in human surgery we almost al- 
ways succeed in disinfecting an operating field in a short time, 
even here it has been decided, especially in opening any cavi- 
ties of the body, to prepare the operating field days before, 
and the so-called preparatory bandages or poultices are ap- 
plied. These bandages are for no other purpose than to bring 
about a thorough disinfection. As the disinfection of the oper- 
ating fields in our domesticated animals for reasons formerly 
given, is much more difficult than in the human, I make such 
preparation of the operating territory in advance whenever 
possible, for success depends upon a careful disinfection. 
To obtain my object, I proceed as follows: If a bandage 
can be put on, for instance, on the extremities, after the operat- 
ing field is priorily cleansed, we apply the bandage (hoofs are 
cleanly trimmed), which is daily moistened with a sublimate 
