154 SPRINGTIME SURGERY 



The rapidity with which infection can spread 

 from one portion of a wound to another, or from 

 an infected wound to adjacent healthy tissues, is 

 starthng. Schimmelbusch inoculated the tip of a 

 mouse's tail with anthrax germs and ten minutes 

 later cut off the tail at its root ; the mouse died of 

 anthrax. Reichel maintains that one minute after 

 inoculation the most thorough antiseptic treat- 

 ment is powerless to prevent infection. What, 

 then, can be expected where an injury is rarely 

 seen by the surgeon until fifteen minutes after its 

 infliction, while oftener it is thirty minutes or an 

 hour? 



Observation and experiment have proved that 

 powerful antiseptics devitalize the tissues and do 

 more harm than good. This is particularly true 

 of carbolic acid, cresylic acid and corrosive sub- 

 limate. These are cited because they are the ones 

 most commonly used by the profession and laity, 

 and the most dangerous. If it be true that these 

 antiseptics cannot prevent or counteract infec- 

 tion and that they by their destructive action upon 

 the tissues really tend to create a field for the de- 

 velopment of germs, why use them at all? The 



