50 VETERINARY SURGICAL THcRAPEUTICS. 
liquids used, and not by atmospheric germs. Contrary to what was 
taught at the beginning of antisepsis, the air is in reality but little 
to be feared for the wounded ; its microbes, thought. so dangerous, 
are almost harmless. When they fall, scattered upon the wound, 
the phagocytes generally are sufficient to destroy them ; those which 
are carried into it ‘‘in legions” by ‘‘ the dirty hands,” the uncleaned 
instruments, the unprepared materials of dressing, are much more 
dangerous. Numerous facts borfowed from veterinary path- 
ology can be cited in favor of the ‘‘germ contage.” Septiczemia, 
which in other times burst out so frequently after operations per- 
formed in our hospitals, was not due, as was believed, to the deposit 
of atmospheric germs upon wounds; it was inoculated by the dirty 
instruments, which were transferred from the post mortem rooms to 
the surgical amphitheaters without being cleaned, or only after a 
semblance of cleaning. We can daily violate the old dogma of re- 
spect for the sero-sanguineous collections of the horse, because we 
open them with aseptic instruments. It is the same with the septi- 
cw#mic spores. How many times those of tetanus have been inocu- 
lated by the instruments! To speak only of castration, how many 
victims have there been to the twisting nippers (pizce @ forsion) 
whose jaws, notwithstanding ‘‘good washings,” retained in their 
rough teeth the dangerous virus. 
When the principal mode of contamination of wounds was known, 
careful attention was given to the disinfection of instruments, of 
hands, and of the dressing material. Bacteriological researches, and 
failures in some operations, showed that the disinfection by chemi- 
cal agents was not always complete, even with the use of concen- 
trated solutions. Organic substances are not easily penetrated by 
antiseptic liquids ; no matter how thin they may be, it is possible 
that their deep parts remain virulent notwithstanding the continued 
action of these liquids, Theiruse was kept up to disinfect the hands 
and the portion operated upon; then heat and high temperatures 
were used to sterilize the instruments, ligatures, drains and other 
objects of dressing. 
Passing them through the flame of an alcoholic lamp, immersing 
..them in boiling water, in glycerine, or oil heated to 120°-150°, are 
the sterilizing modes now most in use. The simplest and most prac- 
tical is certainly boiling water. It does not give an absolute secur- 
ity, some spores resisting a temperature of 100°; it almost always 
offers, however, sufficient guarantee. 
In hospitals, the autoclave of Chamberland and the dry ovens are 
very advantageous, the former for sterilization of objects preserved 
in liquids (120°-150°), ' 
In these last years, while in the old world vigorous antisepsis 
has been practised and its methods perfected, English and Ameri- 
