DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY. 
129 
pare for and perform antiseptic operations. (2) The additional 
expense and the limited remuneration. 
6. Advantages uf the veterinarian over the human surgeon 
are:—(1) The veterinary patient is usually healthy. (2) The 
large per cent, of the operations are performed upon perfectly 
healthy tissues. (3) Septic organisms are less viable in the 
blood serum of animals. (4) The veterinarian seldom operates 
on patients of low vitality nor upon patients at the very brink 
of death. (5) Stronger antiseptics can be used on veterinary 
patients. 
7. Advantages of the human surgeon over the veterinarian 
are :—(1) The human patient is intelligent and is therefore ca¬ 
pable of nursing his own wounds. (2} The operating room can 
be made more clean. (3) The habitat of the human patient 
(usually) is cleaner. (4) The impossibility of keeping the vet¬ 
erinary patient absolutely quiet and the difficulty of applying 
satisfactory dressings. 
8. Begin at once to fear the danger of touching wounds 
with any substance not aseptic. Act under the supposi¬ 
tion that septic organisms are everywhere, and that when they 
once find their way into a trauma they are not readily destroyed. 
It is much better to keep a wound aseptic than to depend upon 
the possibility of making it so. 
9. Remember that the air of an operating room or operating 
place if free from dust is quite safe enough to perform the usual 
operation. It is not necessary to spray the room nor the en¬ 
virons of the operation as was once supposed. 
10. Wash the hands clean and immerse them frequently in 
a 1-500 mercuric chlorid solution, but never manipulate a 
wound with the hands unnecessarily. If a metal instrument 
will do the work, keep the hands off, for in many veterinary 
operations it is difficult, to keep the hands pure. 
11. Boil metal instruments repeatedly, and when wiping 
them do not use a dirty towel. Carry them in a metal case in¬ 
stead of the old-fashioned leather ones. When they are laid 
out for an operation see that they are not placed upon a dirty 
board. A pane of glass well cleansed, a sterilized towel or a 
tray containing a strong carbolic solution will answer. If you 
disregard this step better give up the whole affair at once. 
12. Never wash an aseptic surgical wound with an antisep¬ 
tic solution. It is not necessary, and even harmful, and, be¬ 
sides, the antiseptic solution may not be pure as the wound. 
13. Sutures, bandages and wadding can be safely sterilized 
