INTRODUCTION 



15 



which drop into supporting position automatically as the 

 table is turned downward into the horizontal position. (Fig. 



i.). 



Forge, sterilizer and heating stove occupy a space 2>4x6 

 feet in the corner opposite the operating table. These are 

 elevated one foot from the floor on a cement foundation with 

 pressed brick facing, as a precaution against accidental igni- 

 tion of the floor, and especially the surrounding bedding: 

 The forge should be a good, substantial affair, fixe.d solidly 

 into the cement ; or it may even be constructed entirely of fire 

 brick, with a sheet iron hood. The position occupied by it 

 (shown in Fig. i) is convenient to the operating table and 

 floor space where the hot irons are needed, and it also serves 



• Fig. 2 — Forge, Sterilizer and Heater for Operating Room. 



as a protection to the sterilizer and stove. The sterilizer may 

 be an ordinary metal boiler in lieu of a standard surgeon's 

 apparatus, which contains a lower compartment for boiling 

 instruments and an upper one for steaming the dressings and 

 drying the instruments. Any vessel in which instruments 

 can be submitted to a good boiling will answer, but in no case 

 should this feature of the equipment be ignored. An operat- 

 ing room today without a sterilizer for instruments bur- 

 lesques the outward display of polished instruments, and 

 prostitutes the whole establishment in the eyes of the intelli- 

 gent observer. 



The heating stove occupies the space behind the sterilizer, 

 in a position .well protected against an accidental collision 



