DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY. 
125 
As sutures come in such close contact with the wound it is 
hardly necessary to reiterate that they should be possessed of 
absolute purity. It is not sufficient to soak them in antiseptics 
for a few minutes just before inserting them. Any experienced 
surgeon will vouch for the dangerousness of such a procedure. 
Stitches are such dangerous infection carriers and are imbedded 
on such a fertile media for pyogenic organisms that they should 
be cautiously disinfected. The veterinarian cannot well afford 
to purchase the safe aseptic stitching materials made np for the 
human surgeon, but may keep a small quantity on hand for 
special occasions; for example, in making an intestinal anasto¬ 
mosis. But for the ordinary indication a good method of keeping 
sutures is to wrap a quantity of the flax thread above mentioned 
on an iron bobbin and drop it into a small salt mouth bottle 
filled with formalin, 95 per cent, carbolic or 1 per cent, mer¬ 
curic chlorid and keeping the end from falling into the bottle 
with the cork. In this way a large quantity of safe suturing 
thread is always on hand, and can be carried conveniently. 
After several months in such a solution the thread may decom¬ 
pose and lose some of its strength, but as the cost is so small 
that can be no great objection, in view of the fact that it is both 
an economical and practical method of preventing stitch sup¬ 
puration. 
The reader must refer to works on surgery for a description 
of the various kinds of sutures. Here we can only refer to sug¬ 
gestions on their application so far as they concern the healing 
of the wound. 
The edges of a wound to be sutured must always be closely 
clipped or shaved. The needle should always be passed from 
within outward and never from without inward if absolute 
asepsis is demanded. It has already been said and repeated 
that perfect asepsis of the skin is impossible as even the deep 
layers harbor dangerous organisms. Therefore the needle that 
passes from without inward may carry organisms into the re¬ 
cesses of the wound. To sew from within outward conveniently 
the thread is armed at each end to obviate rethreading after 
each insertion of the needle. In inserting interrupted sutures 
—the usual kind—all of the sutures are inserted before any one 
is tied, so that just before finally closing the wound it—stitches 
and all—can again be immersed with antiseptics to destroy any 
infection that may have been carried into the wound during the 
sewing. 
The edges of a wound must be brought into perfect apposi- 
