DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY. 
719 
vent their observance in one way or another, but in spite of 
these excuses we cannot defend the accusation that we are poor 
surgeons, dirty surgeons, criminal surgeons, and that we actu¬ 
ally owe our clients thousands of dollars for the consequences 
of septic processes which might have been obviated had we 
worked out and inaugurated better methods years ago ; meth¬ 
ods which, in a measure at least, compare with our present 
knowledge of surgical pathology. 
There is evidence, however, that we are at the threshold of 
a new era in this connection, as shown by the active interest in 
antiseptic wound treatment that is becoming apparent here 
and there: In veterinary association reports, in veterinary 
journals and in the new veterinary texts books. Throughout 
the history of the American Veterinary Medical Association the 
subject was seldom approached at its meetings, but this year we 
were treated with an able consideration of the topic by Dr. Wm. 
Herbert Lowe, of Paterson, N. J., under the title of u Routine 
Manipulations and Operations from the Standpoint of Asepsis 
and Antisepsis.” At the annual meeting of the State Veterin¬ 
ary Medical Society of New York Prof. Dr. Pierre A. Fish, of 
the New York State Veterinary College, opened the same topic 
for discussion under the title of “ Some Theories and Experi¬ 
ments in Antisepsis.” And besides these two examples the in¬ 
creasing interest in cleaner surgery is demonstrated in the re¬ 
ports of several state associations that have met during the year 
just closed. And again it is encouraging to note that all the 
leading colleges now have separate departments in which the 
subject of surgery is taught in detail and with due respect for 
the necessary manual training, in contradistinction to the old 
method of dismissing the subject with a few didactic lectures 
supplementary to the chair of medicine. At my alma mater we 
heard practically nothing of surgery, and when the subject 
was approached at all it was generally for the purpose of 
discrediting operative treatment. Neurectomy was spoken 
of as a complete failure, arytenectomy as almost a crime, 
and the veterinarian who practiced dentistry, we were told, 
belonged to the same category as lightning rod agents. If 
hundreds of young men have been so perfectly impregnated 
with this idea as I was on leaving college, it is no wonder 
that the profession in this country did not consistently ad¬ 
vance in surgical therapeutics, and if we wait until our places 
have been filled by the better trained and better educated re¬ 
cruits now emanating from our colleges, the revolution will 
