264 PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 



organisms they carry into a trauma. The veterinary sur- 

 geon can make no greater mistake in surgical operations or 

 wound treatment than that of placing explicit confidence in 

 the microbicide action of antiseptics. The fact is, instead of 

 kiying microbes, the antiseptic powder or antiseptic solu- 

 tion that is not submitted to the same careful sterilization as 

 the other infection conveyors, is much more harmful than 

 useful. If an antiseptic is made strong enough to promptly 

 kill micro-organisms or arrest their growth, it will also in- 

 jure the living cells with which it comes into contact; if it 

 is made weak enough not to injure the living cells of the 

 wound, unless it is stexilized, it will carry new infection into 

 the wound.. 



Tbe powdered antiseptic, by virtue of its dryness, hinders 

 microbian growth by absorbing their nutrition, which fact 

 renders them less liable to add infection to the wound than 

 the liquids. The precaution to take in this connection is to 

 keep the dry antiseptics, — iodoform, boric acid, etc., — in 

 clean and protected packages ; to make the solutions only 

 with, water that has not been contaminated or that has been 

 sterilized by boiling ; and finally to place them only in ster- 

 ilized containers. The only really clean water is that com- 

 ing from a deep drilled well or a spring. All other waters 

 should be boiled. The containers should be of metal or 

 glass-, so. as to facilitate cleansing. A well washed porcelain, 

 tin,, granite or glass vessel is practically safe, while the 

 wooden bucket is always dangerous. 



In the hospital the water and containers can readily be 

 made; and kept safely aseptic. It is only in the out-of-door 

 practice that real obstacles are encountered in keeping these 

 rules of asepsis inviolate. A kettle of boiled water and a 

 well rinsed tin pail to contain it offers the best solution of the 

 problem.. Water from a stream, from a well that is contam- 

 inated with surface water, from the city hydrant, or from the 



