ANTISEPTIC SURGERY. 
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amid that knowledge they know that antiseptic surgery is all 
bosh. How they know matters little; they know it just as 
well as some of our clients know, when a horse has the colic, 
that “ there’s something wrong with his water.” 
Perhaps to fully comprehend our modern wound treat¬ 
ment, one must have a knowledge of the life histories of 
microganisms, although a simple knowledge of the fact 
that microbes are like tramps, on the lookout for free board 
and lodging, would put anyone on their guard. When a 
large wound is exposed to the air the microbes rejoice, and 
commence enjoying a delicious lunch of plastic lymph. There 
is new life enough in the wound, too much, and what does 
Dame Nature do to get rid of these pests? She causes sup¬ 
puration, but if there should be pyaemic and septicasmic 
spores about, they prove too much for her, and produce their 
destructive constitutional changes. Why has carbolic acid 
become so famous? We have been told time and time again 
that it will keep a wound clean; so will water, but not surgi¬ 
cally clean. It is simply the power of carbolic acid as an 
antiseptic, in other words, it destroys the germs and allows 
nature to heal the wound. Bichloride of mercury has proved 
a better antiseptic than carbolic acid, in some hands, iodoform 
still better in others, and thus many disputes have arisen as to 
the best antiseptic. But generally it matters little what anti¬ 
septic is used, so long as sterilization is complete and the 
germs of disease are prevented not only from gaining admis¬ 
sion, but prevented from increasing even if admitted. This 
method is not a system of applying healing salves, ointments, 
liniments, etc., etc.; it is simply a protection of a wound from 
poisonous intruders. There is no such thing as healthy pus. 
How can a pathological product be healthy? It is absurd. 
An objection is often made to the minuteness of the details in 
our method ; it is the attention to these details which go to 
make up the complete whole. In making a good watch, every 
particular screw and jewel must be carefully and accurately 
placed, and the result of this care is the production of a per¬ 
fect time-piece. Remember this, gentlemen, that many prac¬ 
titioners fail to achieve good results with antiseptic surgery, 
