MODERN ADVANCES IN SCIENTIFIC SURGERY. 
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cent, solution of carbolic acid for half an hour, then in plain 
sterilized water for fifteen or twenty minutes, after which they 
should be placed in a small sterilized glass jar having a screw 
top, and covered with 95 per cent, alcohol. Rubber drainage 
tubes, when required, should be prepared in the same manner. 
About five yards of cheese cloth should be procured and boiled 
in a like manner to the silk sutures, after which it may be wrung 
out and dried in an oven, packed in a sterilized fruit jar, and 
the top screwed on tightly. 
The use of cat-gut sutures is not satisfactory, as they can 
seldom be made aseptic without detracting from their strength. 
Indeed, there is no call for them, for if the silk sutures are 
properly prepared, they will be rendered non-irritant and be¬ 
come encystic. Silk-worm gut is often useful, being unabsorb- 
able, and readily rendered aseptic by immersion in 95 per cent, 
alcohol for a few days, in which condition it should always be 
kept. The actual cost of these preparations need not exceed 
fifty cents, and about an hour and a half leisure time, when suffi¬ 
cient material may be prepared for a large number of operations. 
When an operation is to take place, a sufficient amount of 
water should be boiled and strained through a piece of the 
prepared gauze, and allowed to cool, ready for making the 
required solution and washing. 
If the animal is to be cast for the operation, a place should 
be selected as free from dust as possible, the bed prepared of 
fresh green straw, freely sprinkled with a 5 per cent, solution of 
carbolic acid, or preferably, covered by a canvas stack sheet, 
saturated with the same solution. After the patient is secured, 
the anaesthetic may be administered, the parts to be operated 
upon and surrounding surface should be thoroughly scrubbed 
with etherial soap and water, then shaved and washed with 
ether. A fountain syringe, containing a 2 per cent, solution of 
carbolic acid, or bichloride of mercury (1 to 5000), should be 
situated so that a continuous stream may play over the seat of 
operation. 
These preparations having been made, the operator and his 
