July 13, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
21 
ANTISEPTIC PHARMACY. 
BY WILLIAM MART INDALE, F.C.S., 
Dispenser and Teacher of Pharmacy at the University 
College Hospital. 
In a paper read at tlie Evening Meeting of tlie 
Pharmaceutical Society held on December 2nd, 
1868,* I drew attention to some pharmaceutical 
preparations used as dressing in the antiseptic sys¬ 
tem of surgical treatment. Since then the views 
and medical appliances of the great apostle of that 
system, Professor Lister, have undergone consider¬ 
ate modification; the experiments of Professor 
Tyndall with cotton-wool, and the remarks of Pro¬ 
fessor Huxley and others on “ Spontaneous Genera¬ 
tion A together with a more extended trial of the 
preparations then in use, showed that the exclusion 
of atmospheric air from wounds under these dress¬ 
ings, was not necessary, provided it were freed from 
septic matter—the germs of putrefaction. I propose 
on the present occasion to explain the applications 
now used by him in the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, 
and also adopted in many of the London and pro¬ 
vincial hospitals. In order to make the use of 
them intelligible, the field of medicine proper must 
be crossed, and that of surgery much encroached 
upon. 'f¬ 
lu describing these preparations which I have 
had opportunity of seeing largely used, I am making 
free use of the description of them given by Pro¬ 
fessor Lister, in Holmes’ Surgery,! and also of his In¬ 
augural Address in Surgery, at the Meeting of the 
British Medical Association at Plymouth, 1871.§ 
He thus explains that— 
“ Tlie main principles of the antiseptic system are 
well illustrated by a case of simple fracture, say a frac¬ 
ture of the leg from direct violence. Such an injury, 
though subcutaneous, is a most severe, contused and 
lacerated wound; and the interstices between the mangled 
tissues are loaded "with extravasated blood. With the 
sole exception, that the skin is not divided,. so as to 
expose the injured parts to the atmosphere, there are 
present in an aggravated form those conditions which 
we used to regard as inevitably involving violent inflam¬ 
mation, followed by the separation of sloughs under sup¬ 
puration, with corresponding constitutional disturbance 
and serious attendant risk of fatal blood-poisoning. Yet, 
thanks to the unbroken integument, all proceeds quietly 
and surely towards recovery; the effused blood is ab¬ 
sorbed ; and the portions of the tissue killed by the 
violence are similarly disposed of; while repair is effected, 
by a process which, though more slow, in consequence 
of the larger amount of effete material to be worked off, 
is identical with that of union by the first intention, which 
is commonly supposed to demand cleanly-cut surfaces, 
with accurate apposition. If, therefore, the effects of the 
atmospheric exposure could be avoided, primary union 
ought to occur under circumstances hitherto believed to 
be inconsistent with it, and our wounds, whether incised 
or contused, should follow the same safe and tranquil 
course as subcutaneous injuries. In order that we may 
attain that all-important object, the first essential is that 
we understand clearly how the atmosphere exerts its 
* See Phabm. Journ., 2nd ser. Yol. N. p. 390. 
t It will be obvious to the reader that I have no desire 
that pharmacists should trespass on such ground; the care 
and attention required even of the skilled surgeon, to ensure 
good results by this treatment, are such as will deter the 
amateur. 
X Holmes’ ‘System of Surgery,’ vol. v. sec. ed. p. 617, 
et scq. 
§ r ‘ Brit. lied. Joum.,’ vol. ii., 1871, p. 225. 
Third Series, No. 107 . 
baneful influence. If an open contused wound is treated 
in the ordinary way, say by water-dressing, or fomenta¬ 
tions, we know, as a matter of observation, that the 
blood within it undergoes putrefaction as if exposed to 
the air at the same temperature in a vessel of glass or 
other material. This fact explains the whole train of 
bad consequences. The products of putrefaction are irri¬ 
tating and poisonous substances; and though perfectly 
harmless when applied to a sore covered with granulations, 
which constitute a protecting layer destitute of sensi¬ 
bility and readily excited to suppuration instead of ab¬ 
sorption, act very differently upon a recent wound, which 
violently resents the contact of the poison, yet helplessly 
imbibes it into circulation: the inevitable result being- 
local inflammation and febrile disturbance. Meanwhile 
such portions of the tissue as have been killed by the 
violence of the injury, instead of retaining their original 
bland character, and serving as pabulum for their living- 
neighbours, become constantly more and more acrid from 
progressive putrefaction in their substance, and not only 
irritate the weakened parts in their vicinity and retard 
their recovery, but operate on them with caustic effect, 
and thus extend the loss of vitality greatly beyond its 
original limits. The persistent abnormal stimulation at 
length gives rise to suppuration, which weakens the 
patient in proportion to its amount, and in severe cases 
often carries him off by hectic and occasionally pyaemia.” 
The numerous experiments made by Pasteur, 
Liebig and others, proving the origin of fermenta¬ 
tion in saccharine and other fluids to be caused by 
germs of organisms undergoing a further develop¬ 
ment when placed in a suitable nidus, led physiolo¬ 
gists to believe that the putrefaction occurring in 
wounds is caused by a similar action, and that the 
blood and serum of an exposed wound form a con¬ 
venient hatchment in which germs, either floating 
in the atmosphere or otherwise brought into con¬ 
tact with these fluids are further developed, and in 
the wounds produce the characteristic inflammation, 
accompanied by the foetid sloug hin g above men¬ 
tioned ; and, further, that the pure atmospheric air, 
or the oxygen it contains, is not itself an irritant to 
open wounds. Granting this, it is plain that putre¬ 
faction in wounds may be avoided without exclud¬ 
ing the air, by dressing them with some agent ca¬ 
pable of destroying the vitality of the atmospheric 
organisms, provided that it does not act with tot) 
great a violence upon the human tissues. For the 
purposes of antiseptic treatment, volatility of the 
germ-poison is an essential requisite, in order that 
the atmosphere round the dressing may be deprived 
of septic energy, so that no harm may arise from 
its introduction into the wound, which it is often 
quite impossible to avoid. There are many agents 
which fulfil the conditions of volatility combined 
with hostility to low forms of life, such as dilorine, 
sulphurous acid, benzine, creasote and carbohG acid 
(phenic alcohol). “Any one of these,” as states 
Professor Lister, “ I have ascertained by experiment, 
may be used so as to keep a wound from putrefac¬ 
tion, provided it be employed with the essential 
object steadily in view, that is to say, to prevent 
the possibility of a single living putrefactive or¬ 
ganism being left in the wound at the conclusion 
of the first dressing, or getting access to it subse¬ 
quently.” 
On studying Tyndall’s experiments on the filtra¬ 
tion of air by means of cotton wool, he thought the 
application of this seemed to promise valuable results 
in antisex)tic surgery. Experimenting with it, he 
found that if cotton wool, impregnated with either 
chlorine or sulphurous acid, or with the vapour of 
