DISSECTION WOUNDS. 85 



tents of the large intestine are readily forced out by manipulation, 

 the cotton plug of course having been removed. Those of the small 

 intestine may be made to flow out with a stream of water injected 

 into it near the stomach by means of a syringe, or from a faucet. 



The water should be pressed out of the intestine, and alcohol 

 then thrown into it. The alcohol may be retained if the plug is 

 returned to the anus ; or a ligature may be placed about the rectum. 



§ 201. Dissection Wounds. — Slight dissection wounds have oc- 

 casionally been received in the anatomical laboratory of Cornell 

 University, but the results have been nowise different from similar 

 cuts inflicted under ordinary circumstances. 



So far as our experience goes, it is probable that no danger need 

 he apprehended from a wound received during the dissection of 

 any well preserved alcoholic specimen, or of any healthy cat, 

 whether fresh or otherwise. 



In proportion to the number of human bodies annually dissected or examined in 

 necropsies, serious dissection wounds are very few. Indeed, the actual number of such 

 cases is so small that statistics are wanting to enable us to determine with accuracy the 

 conditions under which the consequences are likely to be injurious. A few writers 

 believe these results to be due to " the absorption and irritation of a putrescent fluid ; but 

 this explanation will hardly account for the frequency of the disease after contact with 

 recent bodies before putrefaction has set in, and especially of persons who have died of 

 acute disease, such as puerperal fever, peritonitis, etc., and for the affection of several per- 

 sons at the same time, from the same body and with the same symptoms. " 



In view of the insufficiency of our knowledge, and of the fact that dissection wounds 

 are most apt to occur with beginners, one of the advantages of the oat as a subject of pre- 

 liminary anatomical work is, that the subject may be obtained healthy and fresh, and be 

 preserved in alcohol at slight expense. 



■§ 203. Precautions. — Dissection wounds should be avoided by 

 care in the use of cutting and pointed instruments, and by guard- 

 ing against contact with the sharp points and edges of bones which 

 have been broken or cut. 



Before commencing work upon a suspected animal, or upon 

 decomposing flesh, or upon macerated bones, the hands may be 

 anointed with some kind of fat, as cosmoline, vaseline, olive oil or 

 "cold cream." 



If the skin is already broken, rubber gloves may be worn, as in 

 macerating or in handling offensive viscera, etc., where no delicacy 

 of manipulation is required. In ordinary dissection upon a suspected 

 subject, the cuts or abrasions may be cauterized with strong carbolic 

 or nitric acid, or covered by several thicknesses of adhesive plaster. 



