TREATMENT OP INJURED HAND 155 



question ia a proper one, and my answer is, Don't! 



Don't use carbolic acid. 



Don't use cresylic acid ! 



Don't use corrosive sublimate! 



But if not these, what would you use? It is 

 desirable to use an antiseptic which will prevent 

 further infection and the further development of 

 infecting germs already in the wound. We want 

 a protective and preventive which is not caustic 

 or irritating, something that will cleanse without 

 doing injury and which will guard against the 

 assaults of extraneous germs. 



Surgical Cleansing of the Injured Hand. — 

 The vast majority of injured hands are those of 

 mechanics and laboring men and come to the sur- 

 geon smeared with machine grease, paint, varnish, 

 mud, mortar, sawdust, flour, tobacco quids, cob- 

 webs, and many other substances which are a part 

 of honest labor or which have been applied to the 

 wound in well-meant but misguided efforts to stop 

 bleeding or ease^jain. To remove these substances 

 I use three applications : 



Warm saline solution, 



Gasolin, plain and iodized. 



Warm solution of mercuric cyanide. 



