660 
J. F. WINCHESTER. 
buncular diseases and rouget of swine. These are affections 
whose germs exist in the ground, and the great sacrifice of a 
general slaughter would have to be renewed. 
Anyhow, we possess other efficacious means to relieve us of 
the heavy tax these diseases once cost agriculture in a great 
many countries. 
. ( To be continued .) 
ANTISEPTIC THERAPEUTICS. 
By J. F. Winchester, D. V. S., Lawrence, Mass. 
Read before the American Veterinary Medical Association, Sept. 6, 1900. 
In presenting this subject it is not necessary to introduce 
new matter, as new material is .very likely to be misleading. 
Theories have frequently been advanced that have been ac¬ 
cepted for a while, but which in a short time have suddenly 
disappeared. When old material is worked up with the view 
of showing that it was originally started on sound foundations, 
then a paper of this kind becomes useful. It becomes useful in 
another way, for if one can only say something calculated to 
create discussion and to encourage a free interchange of opin¬ 
ion, thus further good comes from it. 
At the outset it is well to bear in mind what is meant bv 
* 
therapeutics and what an antiseptic is. 
Therapeutics is that part of medicine which relates to the 
composition, the application and the modes of operation of the 
remedies for diseases. It not only includes the administration 
of medicines, properly so called, but also hygiene and dietetics 
or the application of diet and atmospheric and other non- 
medicinal influences to the preservation or recovery of health. 
Dr. G. M. Sternberg tells us that by an antiseptic we mean 
an agent which prevents septic decomposition by preventing 
the development of the micro-organisms which cause it, and 
the term is extended to the restraining influence exercised upon 
other micro-organisms of the same class including the patho¬ 
genic bacteria or germs of infectious diseases. Miguel has for- 
