INTRODUCTION 



hours prior to the operation iu order that the deeper parts 

 of the skin, especially the hair follicles and sebaceous glands, 

 shall become thoroughly disinfected, a process well nigh 

 impossible in a short period. 



The suturing, dressing and bandaging of the wound 

 should be carried out carefully in every case and no opera- 

 tion left without completing it in the best manner possible. 



The student should make each operation as real as possible 

 and not omit any detail even if he thinks he already knows 

 it sufiSciently well, as the repetition of a supposedly familiar 

 detail serves an important purpose in the fixing of a habit 

 which is inestimably more valuable to the surgeon than any 

 theoretical knowledge of technic. 



The safe surgeon is he who has so accustomed himself to 

 the technique of asepsis and antisepsis that he carries it out 

 rigidly in an automatic manner and is thus free to concen- 

 trate his entire attention on the surgical problems before 

 him. One of the most, if not the most, difficult lesson to 

 teach the student is asepsis, which in its final analysis is 

 cleanliness. It is difiicult because cleanliness is an integral 

 element in character. A man is clean or he is dirty. If 

 clean in general, he will be clean as an operator, but if he 

 habitually goes about with dirty hands and in dirty cloth- 

 ing, if his office is filthy, and his surgical equipment unclean 

 and in disorder, it is virtually impossible in such a realm of 

 filth to create an oasis of cleanliness during a surgical opera- 

 tion. Consequently the student in learning surgery must 

 learn cleanliness of habit as a rule of life so that when 

 engaging in a surgical operation, he carries with him the 

 habit of being clean, and surgical cleanliness is then in 

 entire harmony with his daily life. 



The student who consults his interests will go yet farther 

 and prior to undertaking any operation on the living subject 

 will study the regional anatomy of the part on the cadaver 

 and learn therefrom all that he can of the structure of the 



