282 PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 



with cork, rubber, felt or cotton to prevent the knife points 

 from blunting against the glass. 



(f) Absorbent cotton in the original package. 



2nd. Use No Less Than Five White, Clean, Porcelain 

 Pans For Each Operation. A veterinary surgical operation 

 cannot be a clean one if only one or two containers are used 

 for the antiseptics, because different solutions are required 

 for dififerent purposes, and because the use of a certain 

 solution for one purpose will render it harmful for another. 



(a) Pan No. i contains soap, hot water, a sponge or 

 pledgets of cotton, scissors, razor and clippers. An ordi- 

 nary metal pail would answer for this purpose.. This pan 

 is used to carry out the first step of disinfecting the operat- 

 ing field, and since its contents become soiled with dirt and 

 hairs it is no longer safe to use for the subsequent steps of 

 the operation. When the hair is shaved and the field 

 washed it may be emptied and used thereafter for the slop-: 

 jar, for dissected tissues, soiled sponges, pledgets of soiled 

 cotton, etc. 



(b) Pan No. 2 contains mercuric chloride 1-500, or even 

 1-200, and several sponges or a number of pledgets of cotton. 

 It is used to wash the operating field and to rinse the hands, 

 which of course were previously washed. The pledgets of 

 cotton or sponges are taken from the solution one after 

 another to wash the field, but are never carried back into it. 

 When soiled they are cast into pan No. i, — the slop-jar, — 

 and not rinsed out in this pan, because carrying a sponge 

 back and forth from pan to patient will pollute the solution. 

 When the field is disinfected it is set aside for rinsing the 

 surgeon's hands, which often become soiled during the 

 operation. 



(c) Pan No. 3 is the assistant's bailing pan. It contains 

 sterilized water of a weak antiseptic solution, — three per 

 cent carbolic and 1-2000 mercuric chloride, — several 



