256 
R. J. STANCLIFT. 
With the necessary environment of our domesticated ani¬ 
mals, it is impossible by these methods of procedure to have 
practical antisepsis, which is necessary to have healing by pri¬ 
mary adhesion. By obtaining healing by primary intention we 
do away with those sequelae which are due to infection and 
thus lessen the danger of the operation. 
In considering how we are to prevent infection, we must first 
determine how and where the infection can come from. This 
can all be summed up in three ways : 
First, the infecting material may be upon the seat of the 
operation. 
Second, it may be brought to the wound by the operator or 
his assistants. 
Third, it may gain entrance after the operation has been 
performed. 
These can be best considered in the order as given. 
First, to prevent infection from seat of operation. Here,, 
upon the skin, we have a great variety of micro-organisms, and 
these may consist of those which live upon the epidermis, and 
those obtained from the litter or earth. The latter are the more 
dangerous, as in these we may have the bacillus tetani or the 
bacillus of malignant oedema. 
The seat of the operation should be cleaned thoroughly with 
soap and water and then disinfected afterwards with some good 
antiseptic, which can be washed off with distilled or boiled 
water, at the time of the operation. 
Second, infection by operator or assistant. Here the infect¬ 
ing agents may be brought by the instruments used or by the 
hands or clothes of the operator. To prevent this, the opera¬ 
tor’s hands and clothes should be perfectly clean and the hands 
disinfected, the instruments sterilized, preferably by boiling or 
by a good antiseptic, and nothing allowed to touch the wound 
but what has been disinfected. 
Third, the infection of the wound after the operation. In 
our domestic animals, we cannot apply any bandages or dress- 
ings to the scrotum, which can be kept in place, and thus obtain 
