DEPARTMENT ■ OF SURGERY. 
53 
does not operate continually finds a lack of knowledge of the minor 
details of surgical technique is the real obstacle. The value of 
a book that will remove this obstacle can hardly be over esti¬ 
mated. (L. A. M.) 
Professor Moller in his new work on veterinary surgery says 
that the results from aseptic castration do not outweigh the 
advantages of the old method. He, however, does not fail to re¬ 
mind the reader that cleanliness can not be overdone, even 
when absolute asepsis is impossible. If the learned and skillful 
Professor Moller’s u ordinary method ” refers to dirty surgery of 
the American oophorectomist, surely then he has left himself 
open to criticism. “ Ordinary ” surgery is never justifiable. 
In veterinary operations, and especially in castration, the rule 
should be to carry asepsis as far as practical. In the case of 
castration the operation, without additional cost and without 
much additional time, can be made an aseptic one to the point 
of applying an occlusive dressing, and no reasonable excuse 
whatever can be offered for not doing so, Moller’s statement to 
the contrary notwithstanding. Suturing the wound and then 
protecting it in some way or other is of course neither practical 
nor desirable, but if the operation is accurately executed 
through each step and the patient is made to stand in a clean 
stall for five or six days sepsis will rarely progress beyond the 
scrotal incision, and even this may heal without the semblance 
of a septic process. A doubtful ecraseur or emasculator and 
unclean knives or hands applied to the cord which will after¬ 
ward discharge a purulent secretion over the whole inguinal 
canal is the chief cause of septic sequelae and not infection 
after the operation, as is generally supposed. (L- A. M.) 
Europhen as a Substitute for Iodoform .—Europhen is an 
orange-colored, non-crystalline powder, containing 28 per cent, 
iodine, which, like iodoform, it liberates when brought in con¬ 
tact with wounds. It is inodorous and hence not objectionable 
from that standpoint. It possesses the unique and very much 
desired quality of adhering well to wound surfaces—a property 
iodoform does not possess—and its high potency as an antisep¬ 
tic is observable on first trial. It promotes granulation and 
limits secretion quite as effectually as iodoform, and as a given 
quantity will cover a much larger surface, it is more eco¬ 
nomical. Europhen deserves a thorough trial in veterinary 
surgery and if it proves equal to iodoform, as evidence at pres¬ 
ent indicates, it must surely become its universal substitute. It 
is a product of the Farbenfabriken of Elberfeld Co. (E. A. M.) 
