TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 89 



For wicks to act as drainage in counter openings, or in 

 the lower commissure of wounds, sterilized antiseptic 

 gauze is most suited. Drainage tubes should be boiled 

 before being fixed into a wound. 



Protective Dressings as Conveyors of Infection 



Bandages, absorbent cotton, oakum, coUodium, dust- 

 ing powders, and wound varnishes are the objects used 

 as protective dressings. The truth about wound treat- 

 ment in this connection is that a wound closed without 

 having been infected in the process of treatment is not 

 apt to become infected later. Postoperative infection I 

 know is often a very convenient cloak to cover up oper- 

 ative infection. The eastrator, in all the seriousness of a 

 minister, chastises the owner o*f a dying colt for having 

 allowed it to inhabit a dirty stall when in fact the infec- 

 tion responsible for the stricken animal's condition was 

 deposited with his own hands or his own unsterilized or 

 half -sterilized emaseulator, at the time of the operation, 

 and this example explains the mystery of nearly all our 

 wound infections. 



CoUodium, dusting powders, and wound varnishes sel- 

 dom convey infections because. they are clean, antiseptic, 

 and drying. Bandages and cotton, however, placed over 

 a wound, require attention as infection carriers. I am a 

 believer' in antiseptic wraps for wounds, and depend 

 upon aseptic wraps only when renewal is frequent. An 

 aseptic bandage that becomes soaked with wound serosity, 

 or that holds wound discharges against the skin around 

 a wound, is not so good as one 'that contains iodoform, 

 mercury, or carbolic acid, because the serum in such a 

 bandage does not putrefy as soon as in an aseptic wrap. 



It is our practice to dust a powder of iodoform, bis- 

 muth subiodid, or boric acid over the wound and then 

 „ cover this with cotton and a bandage soaked and rinsed 

 out of mercuric chlorid solution (1 to 200). With these 



