720 
DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY. 
drag along through another generation and the prestige we 
should now have will be denied us through our lives. We 
should retrace our steps to our school days and begin to train 
our minds and hands in the branches our instructors failed to 
train us. Surgery and sanitary medicine are bound to become 
the two great factors in our future evolution, and unless we be¬ 
gin to take advantage of all the known possibilities in these two 
domains we are destined to linger in the same old rut if not to 
become entirely obsolete. We may discover new procedures or 
add to the indications of the old ones, but unless we adopt anti¬ 
septic treatment to our technique progression in veterinary sur¬ 
gery will become an unknown quantity. '1 he art of surgery 
and antiseptic wound treatment are of course two distinctive 
studies, but as the former is incapable of advancement without 
the latter, and as the healing of the accidental or surgical 
wound is of primal importance in surgery, much will be gained 
from a detailed consideration of the latter subject. 
The subject of antiseptic wound treatment is one which can¬ 
not be profitably discussed by a mere mention of generalities. 
Like its application, the discussion must deal thoroughly and 
methodically with the minutest details in order to accomplish 
the desired results. If I were only to mention that wound dis¬ 
eases are caused by the intrusion of organisms and that-the 
lemedy consists simply in excluding such organisms, which in 
fact is the whole proposition, I would only be repeating a prop¬ 
osition that has been demonstrated long ago, and therefore 
nothing would be gained by submitting it. The problem we 
have to solve is not the cause of wound diseases but the method 
of preventing them. “ How shall we prevent the intrusion of 
septic organisms into the wounds of our patients?” is the ques¬ 
tion we must answer. 
Entering at once into the details of the subject let us 
first index a glossary of the terms used in its discussion :— 
Sepsis (adj. septic) is the effect of bacterial ferments on 
nitrogenous material. It denotes putrefaction in contradistinc¬ 
tion to the word fermentation , which is usually applied to the 
effect of ferments on non-nitrogenous matter, e.g ., carbohydrates. 
W e are thereby justified in using the word sepsis in referring to 
the effect of any bacteria on any living tissue. 
Antiseptic (noun, antisepsis) is a descriptive adjective often 
used as a noun. It refers to an agent or influence that is used 
to combat sepsis, while antisepsis denotes the condition thus 
created. 
