History and value of antiseptics : together with remarks on antiseptic dressings, read before the Surgical section of the Suffolk District Medical Society, April 7, 1886 / by Ernest W. Cushing.

  • Cushing, Ernest W. (Ernest Watson), 1847-1916.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History and value of antiseptics : together with remarks on antiseptic dressings, read before the Surgical section of the Suffolk District Medical Society, April 7, 1886 / by Ernest W. Cushing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    11/26 (page 11)
    supply of tlie tliree drugs above mentioned, and of pre- pared catgut, drainage-tubes, etc. He must have ^ouie form of dressing tluit will absorb discliarges, but will not let them serve as a nest for germs. Such a dressing is absorbent cotton gauze or cheese- cloth, or al)Sorbent cotton wadding, impregnated with iodoform (j^) or carbolic acid, witli resin, etc., or corro- sive sublimate (1: 1000). In these the wound is incased with the utmost care ; and in nothing is the old motto truer than here:— Safe bind, safe find,— A iiiaxini never far from prudent mind. The principle on which wounds are closed is always the same, the details varjing with the nature of the injur}' or operation. Briefly: All microbes must be washed out of the wound, hemorrhage must be stopped, and all blood or other foreign substances removed, before the wound is closed. Provision must be made for the escape of some serous exudation by tubes of rubber or bone, or by strands of catgut. The parts must be exactly coapted, and, as a rule, sutured by some material capable of being absorbed, and set completely at rest.