36 
Modem  Surgical  Dressings. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\    January,  1897. 
place  in  the  world."  All  hospitals  have  not  earned  such  a  title. 
Many  of  them  are  attached  to  medical  colleges  where  students  and 
professors  gather  fresh  from  the  dispensary  clinic,  from  visits  to 
infected  houses,  from  dissecting  rooms,  from  hundreds  of  sources 
of  contagion. 
Clinging  to  their  persons  and  clothing  may  be  found  particles 
rich  in  pyogenic  and  pathogenic  bacteria.  In  hospitals,  the  aggre- 
gation of  infectious  organisms  cannot  be  avoided.  Formerly,  they 
were  "  hot-beds  of  infection."  Now  dangers  are  excluded  only 
by  the  most  rigorous  procedures. 
When  dressings  are  prepared  by  the  pharmacist,  the  work  is 
generally  performed  in  the  drug  store  back  room.  This  place 
comes  far  short  of  the  conditions  known  as  surgical  cleanliness. 
The  chemically  clean  graduate  is  still  unclean  in  the  eye  of  the  sur- 
geon. Counters  covered  with  vegetable  and  animal  drugs  of  all 
kinds  are  not  suitable  places  upon  which  to  lay  absorbent  gauze. 
Street  and  store  dust,  spatterings  of  syrups,  extracts,  oils,  and  all 
manner  of  decoctions,  create  a  favorable  lodging-  and  breeding-place 
for  organic  life.  These  are  not  wanted  in  surgical  dressings.  The 
pharmacist,  though  ordinarily  clean  in  person  and  habits,  familiar 
with  soap  and  water  in  the  pursuit  of  his  calling,  yet  he  is  far  from 
aseptic.  Like  the  physician,  he  is  constantly  in  contact  with  infec- 
tion through  the  person  of  his  patrons. 
The  hands  that  dispense  beef  tea  at  the  soda  counter,  or  that 
bring  a  jar  from  a  mouldy  cellar,  should  not  touch  sterilized  mate- 
rial without  cleansing.  Thus  there  must  be  a  radical  change  of 
environment  before  the  pharmacist  can  attain  success  in  aseptic 
technique,  though  he  may,  perhaps,  rightfully  claim  conditions  and 
facilities  that  are  above  those  of  the  ordinary  physician. 
The  facilities  of  the  manufacturer,  whose  whole  organization  is 
adapted  to  the  production  of  surgical  dressings,  are  certainly  more 
perfect  than  those  of  the  surgeon,  to  whom  such  work  is  incidental. 
The  environment  of  a  room  from  which  pathogenic  organisms  and 
septic  matters  are  entirely  excluded  is  supericr  to  that  obtained  in 
the  hospital  or  in  the  doctor's  office.  The  room  in  which  no  work 
is  undertaken  except  the  handling  of  aseptic  material  will  certainly 
be  more  nearly  surgically  clean  than  one  to  which  infection  has 
constant  access.  Persons  whose  only  calling  is  that  of  preparing 
surgical  ma'erial,  who  have  been  schooled  in  the  principles  under- 
