SURGICAL ANTISEPSIS AND ASEPSIS. 5I 
can surgeons have given up bactericide agents to be‘satisfied with 
strict cleanliness. They put antisepsis aside for asepsis. But this 
cannot be accepted in veterinary medicine, at least, as a general 
method. There is no necessity of studying them separately any- 
how ; they mutually complete each other, and their association is 
aflen: advantageous. Antisepsis must be applied when the operation 
may be followed by abundant suppuration, a fistulous tract, or an 
. ulcer, and also after interferences in which union by first intention 
has failed to take place; its agents are always used to disinfect the 
part operated upon, the hands, and the instruments, and to prepare 
the material of the dressing. One is satisfied with asepsis alone 
when only tissues free from any contamination are to be divided, 
and when antisepsis might, by their contact, give rise to inflammation, 
limited necrosis, and intoxication ; but although, when one is certain 
of asepsis, it is useless to place healthy divided tissues in contact 
with strong antiseptic solutions, very often, during operations, the 
veterinarian is obliged to have recourse to those solutions in order to 
purify the tissues accidently contaminated. 
Of the two problems, ‘‘ antisepsis before and during ” or ‘‘antisepsis 
before,and asepsis during” an operation, it is the former that we pre- 
fer as a general rule in our own practice, where during operations, 
on account of the conditions in which they are performed, the 
chances of infection of the wound, of the hands and of instruments 
are very numerous and difficult to avoid. 
Even in human surgery, where strict asepsis can, perhaps, be ob- 
tained more easily,—thanks to the places well arranged for it, andto 
the use of special apparatus,—and where the operator is aided by a 
selected staff and well-trained assistants, antisepsis has also its ad- 
vantages. In general, says*Terrier, ‘‘with a view to greater 
_certainty from an operative standpoint, it would be well always to 
reserve antisepsis for certain things, even while one should give his 
preference to the mixed method. . . . Since the organization of our 
hospitals is so insufficient as it is, the mixed method seems to offer 
us more security than the pure aseptic process.” * 
Among the agents which give rise to infection in surgery, there 
are those which assume a single form (micrococci) ; ; others have 
morphological characters which differ according to their stage of 
evolution (bacilli). While the former are generally rapidly killed by 
heat and by antiseptic agents, the latter have a resistance to the 
causes of destruction, which varies according as they are under 
the form of bacilli or in the state of ‘‘germ- -corpuscles.” When they 
have become adults, they are easily killed; but under the form of 
‘spores, they possess a very great feck tance to germicide agents. 
1 Terrier et Peraire, ‘* Manuel d’antisepsie et d’asepsie chirurgicales,” Pp, 223. 
