DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY. 
835 
patient suffering from erysipelas, nor would a careful surgeon 
undertake a laparotomy immediately after having polluted his 
hands with the putrid discharges of a wound. The veterin¬ 
arian must sooner or later recognize this feature of clean sur¬ 
gery. To cope with a putrid after-birth in the morning and 
then castrate a cryptorchid before the day is over must eventu¬ 
ally be recognized as inconsistent and dangerous. That the 
hands of the busy veterinarian are seldom clean enough to per¬ 
form operations in the internal cavities can hardly be denied in 
the face of recent investigations regarding the flora of the skin. 
The human skin is particularly well constituted to harbor or¬ 
ganisms which will defy removal, and as the veterinarian’s 
hands are continually brought in contact with septic matter 
this subject deserves the most carefui attention. Some of our 
best veterinarians are particularly unfortunate with their cas¬ 
trations, while a non-professional castrator in the same com¬ 
munity seldom has a casualty. Is it not possible that the hands 
are the cause? Have we not frequently observed that a num¬ 
ber of castrations performed on a single day have all been fol¬ 
lowed by an unaccountable amount of swelling and perhaps one 
or two fatalities, while on other days every case progressed 
favorably ? Might not the contaminated hands be the cause ? 
Few veterinarians have skilled assistants to execute the pre¬ 
paratory steps of their operations, and hence must secure the 
patient, clip, shave and wash the seat of operation. The cast¬ 
ing harness of a veterinarian is continually being soaked with 
pus and blood, and as they must be handled by the operator he 
finds, at the very outset of the operation, his hands in a con¬ 
dition that would make the human surgeon shrink from oper¬ 
ations for a week, and as this circumstance cannot be obviated 
it remains for us to adopt methods that will render the hands 
X 
less harmful, viz. : (i) Avoid digital manipulations of surgical 
wounds .— It is indeed seldom necessary to paw over our surgical 
wounds. Metallic instruments that have been sterilized should 
be used instead of the fingers, whenever possible. It is evident 
that this one precaution wdl accomplish more in the prevention 
of wound infection during operations than any other, and hence¬ 
forth, the technique of onr capital operations must be arranged 
with this end in view. (2) The use of gloves .—Gloves are use¬ 
ful in many veterinary operations in protecting the patient 
against infection as well as the surgeon himself. Gloves, even 
the light rubber variety, are somewhat cumbersome and in a 
measure impede delicate manipulations, yet, in certain septic 
