PRACTICAL ANTISEPSIS IN SURGERY. 
303 
for disinfecting- the field of operation, especially in practice out 
side of a hospital, because of its easy application, not requiring 
so many vessels to properly carry on the work. 
For packing large cavities we need a prohibitive germicide, 
that is cheap, that is light and bulky, that will not irritate the 
parts, that is not too astringent, that will not act as a foreign 
body, that will not dissolve too rapidly, that will not produce 
unfavorable systemic disturbances, but will prevent germ de¬ 
velopment. 
A combination of boracic acid and acetanilid will prevent 
germ development, but it dissolves too rapidly and it has a 
tendency to stimulate a serous exudate in the wound. Iodoform 
is too expensive, too heavy and may produce too great systemic 
disturbances when used in large quantities. 
I am of the opinion that a combination of two or more drugs 
of this class that have different degrees of solubility and systemic 
action, will give better results than any one remedy that is on 
the market at the present time, although I have not us yet had 
an opportunity to use glutol (a combination of gelatin and 
formalin), a remedy that has recently come into use in human 
practice for packing cavities where the parts cannot be coapted, 
nor iodide of starch, a preparation that seems to have a number 
of the essential attributes. 
Cheese cloth, a thin gauzy cloth, that can be purchased at 
any dry goods store for from three to five cents per yard, when 
thoroughly boiled in a solution of sodium chloride or boracic 
acid, and dried in an oven, will answer all purposes equally as 
well as the higher priced medicated or surgical gauzes on the 
market. For sterilizing instruments and dressings such as ab¬ 
sorbent cotton, gauzes and bandages, nothing is so efficient as 
moist or dry heat. 
The application of accessory treatment, such as bandages, 
splints, etc., and the use of sling will depend largely upon the 
character of the wound and the temperament of the patient. 
The objects obtained by this line of treatment are reducing 
to a minimum of the liability of septicsemic and pysemic 
