Remarks on a case of compound dislocation of the ankle with other injuries : illustrating the antiseptic system of treatment / by Joseph Lister.
- Joseph Lister
- Date:
- 1870
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Remarks on a case of compound dislocation of the ankle with other injuries : illustrating the antiseptic system of treatment / by Joseph Lister. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![spirit of wine or glycerine with the watery solution used for injecting the wound. The admixture of either of these materials with water containing a given amount of the acid in solution, gives it a greater hold upon the acid, and renders the lotion more bland, and at the same time more persistent in its action ; and this may, under certain circumstances, be very useful for the purpose of an external dressing. But for the preliminary treat- ment of the interior of the wound an agent potent for the moment, but transient, is called for, to kill the putrefactive organisms, and, as soon as this is done, to leave the wound as speedily as possible to recover from the inevitable irritation of the antiseptic; and for this purpose no vehicle seems better for the acid than simple water.] The liquid introduced having been squeezed out, the process of injection and manipulation was per- formed a second time for greater security, and the skin in the vicinity having been previously well washed with the lotion, to destroy organisms adhering to it or to the hairs, an external dressing was applied, similar to that which you have seen used after removal of the fatty tumour. Lac plaster was wrapped in two layers round the limb, from three or four inches above the upper extremity of the wound to as far below its lower end—that is to say, extending well up the leg and embracing the heel and instep; the foot meanwhile being held in good position. A cloth, to absorb the blood and serum which would be discharged from beneath the margins of the plaster was then bandaged on, and a splint applied to the inner aspect of the leg and foot. [The lac plaster has been very much im-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22329687_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
