ASEPSIS AND ANTISEPSIS. 
633 
eral of their action upon the living tissues with which they 
come in contact constitute sepsis. Whatever tissue or wound- 
surface is contaminated by these ptomaines is in an aseptic con¬ 
dition, and whatever method or means antagonizes their pro¬ 
duction, or antidotes, restricts, or removes the results of their 
presence, is an antiseptic. 
The ideal treatment of a wound is that by which a perfectly 
aseptic condition should be obtained and presented ; where this 
is impracticable, the object of treatment becomes changed to 
the application of means to diminish the activity of the septic 
organisms, to secure the rapid removal of their products, and to 
increase the resisting power of the wounded tissues. 
Cleanliness is the very first essential in all our routine 
work ; in fact, there is no such thing as asepsis without abso¬ 
lute cleanliness. I do not know how to sufficiently emphasize 
the importance and actual necessity of cleanliness in each and 
every detail, if we expect to obtain the best possible results. 
Practitioners with unkept surroundings, and who in their actual 
daily practice belittle their calling by their disregard of water 
and their careless toleration of dirt, will not be expected, much 
less inclined, to carry out the scientific principles laid down in 
this paper. Fortunately this indifferent and careless class of 
veterinarians have to give way to the more competent and 
worth y. 
In addition to the resources of cleanliness for preserving 
wounds from becoming the seat of the vital activity of micro¬ 
organisms, there still remains to the veterinary surgeon the em¬ 
ployment of direct applications to wound-surfaces of substances 
which have the power either to destroy them outright or to re¬ 
strain their growth. These agents are classified as antiseptics 
and their use as above constitutes wound disinfection. 
The possibility of obtaining antiseptic results in a wound 
by agents that simply restrain the growth of septic organisms, 
as well as by those that destroy them, is a matter of great practi¬ 
cal importance, for it has increased the number of substances 
available for antisepsis, and since the preventive effects of many 
