CHAPTER XL 

 ASEPSIS AND ANTISEPSIS. 



DEFINITION. — The terms "asepsis and antisepsis," 

 "aseptic surgery" and "antiseptic surgery" are now quite 

 commonly used to designate the standard manipulations 

 which have emanated from the teachings of Lister as to 

 the cause of wound diseases. Aseptic surgery may be de- 

 fined as the essential precaution to prevent infection of the 

 surgical wound, while antiseptic surgery refers both to the 

 method by which the former is accomplished and to the 

 treatment of unavoidable infections. Thus, the absolute 

 sterilization of everything more or less intimately con- 

 nected with a surgical operation, is asepsis, and the opera- 

 tion performed under such conditions is "an aseptic su/gi- 

 cal operation." The process of sterilization requires the 

 use of antiseptics, — heat or chemicals, — hence the "anti- 

 septic precaution" precedes the "aseptic technique." The 

 former renders the latter possible. The whole aim in this 

 particular connection is toward asepsis. The surgical 

 wound is kept aseptic, while the already infected one is 

 made as nearly aseptic as possible. To prevent a trauma 

 from becoming infected and to disinfect the infected one 

 is the surgeon's most serious duty. 



From this standpoint, the veterinary surgical opera- 

 tions are often open to adverse criticism, in that they are 

 not always performed in strict obedience to the laws which 

 now govern surgical manipulations, viz., the laws which 

 emanate from the common knowledge about the etiology 

 of wound diseases. All mankind now knows that wound 

 diseases are caused by the intrusion of bacteria; that the 



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