212 MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY. 



with sterile lime-water to rid of excess of acid, (s) Washing 

 in i-iooo bichloride of mercury solution for one minute. 



Weir's method: (i) Hands and forearms are scrubbed as 

 in other methods. (2) A scant tablespoonful of chlorinated 

 lime is moistened with enough warm water to make a thick 

 paste. This is carefully rubbed into hands and forearms. (3) 

 A piece of carbonate of soda one inch square and one-haK 

 inch thick is crushed and rubbed into the paste. From three 

 to five minutes are thus employed. (4) Rinsing in sterile 

 water and washing in a solution of |- of i per cent, of ammonia 

 remove the odor of chlorine. 



Rubber gloves are now quite widely employed. These can 

 be readily sterilized and this obviates much of the tedious proc- 

 ess required for sterilizing the hands. 



E. R. McGuire * states that prolonged scrubbing with frequent changes of 

 brushes in running sterile water will give the nearest approach to sterility. The 

 use of antiseptics on the hands is not to be relied upon, for their precipitation 

 by chemicals or normal tissue fluids may break up their combination with 

 bacteria that were considered inactive or dead, but are not so in reality. He 

 suggests the use of hot air by cabinet-bath or Kelly hot-air apparatus to "sweat" 

 out of the glands in the skin as much as possible of their contents before the 

 skin is cleansed. 



Prolonged soaking of the skin in a soap poultice or strong 

 antiseptic may damage and irritate the tissues, so that it is 

 not advisable to prepare the field of operation more than twelve 

 or twenty-four hours before the time^set for an operation. 



Maylardf recommends the sterilization of the skin by in- 

 unctions of oleate of mercury. The method employed is as 

 follows: (i) Cleanse the skin in the usual way with soap and 

 water. (2) Anoint freely and widely with hydrated lanoUn- 

 oleate of mercury, 20 per cent., and rub in; smear a piece 

 of gauze with the same and leave until a second inunction 



* American Medicine. February 28, 1903. 

 t Annals of Surgery. January, 1902. 



