Remarks on a case of compound dislocation of the ankle with other injuries : illustrating the antiseptic system of treatment / by Joseph Lister.

  • Lister, Joseph, Baron, 1827-1912.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

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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    like that at the ankle, except that their edges were approximated by antiseptic sutures. [The materia] which I have used of late for this purpose is silk steeped for a while in a mixture of melted bees-wax with a certain proportion of carbolic acid—say a tenth part. As the silk is taken out of the hot liquid, it is drawn through a dry cloth to remove the superfluous wax; after which it may be wound on a reel, and kept in any close vessel. The wax, besides giving the knot a better hold, prevents the antiseptic from being washed out of the thread, and also, filling up the interstices of the fibres, renders the silk incapable of imbibing stimu- lating liquids; and so confers an unirritating quality corresponding to that of the metaUic suture, over which the suppleness of the thread gives it a great superiority.] When all had been stitched up, each wound was once more injected with the strong watery solution, to correct any mischief that might possibly have been introduced by regurgitation of blood that had oozed into the cavity during the insertion of the stitches. A well overlapping cap of lac plaster, in double layer, was then apphed, surrounded by a cloth to absorb discharge, secured hy bandage and pins. I cannot too strongly impress upon you the import- ance of having the plaster extend freely beyond the wound at every part, so that the discharge may have to travel a considerable distance beneath the imperme- able antiseptic layer before reaching the sources of mischief externally. It is only in tliis way that you can guard securely against the spread of the putre- factive fermentation into the wound. Yet there is