Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
June,  1 918.  J 
Antiseptics. 
437 
ANTISEPTICS.1 
A  Short  Account  of  the  Work  Done  for  the  Medical  Research 
Committee  in  the  Pathological  Department, 
Edinburgh  University. 
By  Theodore  Rettie,  D.Sc. 
In  January,  191 5,  the  National  Insurance  Medical  Research 
Committee,  at  the  request  of  the  War  Office,  issued  an  appeal  to  the 
various  medical  schools  to  institute  research  on  several  problems 
which  had  been  encountered  in  the  medical  service  at  the  Front. 
One  of  the  most  urgent  requirements  was  a  reliable  antiseptic  for 
the  treatment  of  heavily  infected  wounds,  with  special  attention  to 
spore-bearing  organisms.  Professors  Lorrain  Smith  and  Ritchie  at 
once  organized  several  sets  of  workers  to  investigate  the  various 
problems,  under  their  own  direction.  The  work  on  antiseptics  was 
carried  out  by  the  Professors,  Dr.  A.  Murray  Drennan,  now  pro- 
fessor of  clinical  pathology  in  Otago,  Dr.  W.  Campbell,  now  a 
captain  in  the  R.  A.  M.  C,  stationed  at  Alexandria,  and  myself.2 
It  may  seem  strange  that  over  forty  years  after  the  introduction 
of  antiseptic  surgery  by  Sir  Joseph  Lister  no  ideal  antiseptic  has 
been  devised  for  such  emergency  treatment ;  the  explanation,  I 
think,  is  to  be  found  in  the  tendency  of  modern  surgery  to  leave  as 
much  to  the  recuperative  power  of  the  patient's  own  body  as  pos- 
sible. In  preparing  for  operation  the  surroundings  of  the  patient 
are  rendered  as  sterile  as  possible.  Instruments,  swabs,  dressings, 
everything  that  will  come  in  contact  with  him,  are  sterilized  by 
heat,  in  fact  nothing  that  is  not  sterile  is  allowed  to  touch  him. 
Under  such  conditions  the  only  antiseptic  necessary  is  some  iodine 
solution  to  sterilize  the  patient's  skin,  and  lysol  or  such  preparation 
in  which  to  place  instruments  after  use. 
In  accident  cases  where  the  wound  is  already  infected,  the  in- 
jured tissues  are  carefully  dissected  out  under  chloroform  and  the 
wound  cleansed  with  some  strong  antiseptic,  and  most  often  with 
5  per  cent,  aqueous  carbolic  acid,  Lister's  original  antiseptic,  or, 
by  some  of  the  ultra-aseptic  surgeons,  with  large  douches  of  sterile 
saline  (0.85  per  cent,  salt  solution — this  is  known  as  normal  saline 
1  From  The  Journal  of  the  Society  of  Chemical  Industry,  January  31. 
2  Lorrain  Smith,  Drennan,  Rettie,  and  Campbell,  B.  M.  J.,  1915,  2,  129. 
