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.

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    killing tlie germs outright by action of the living pus- cells. With sti-e[)toc()cei, however, this is often more difficult than with the other forms. Thus, diffuse cellu- litis, blood-poibouing, and fatal septicteuiia frequently follow the inoculation of streptococci. The latter are the germs found in erysipelas — at least, they are just like them. They are also found in rapidly fatal cases of puerperal fever, which is apparently only a general name for the inoculation of the imerperal uterus with the vari- ous germs above mentioned. These organisms do not exist in the blood of healthy persons. They are intrcxluced into wounds from tinthout, always. Without germs there is no acute suppuration : only an exudation of serum, with jierliaps a few white cells; nothing that would ordinarily be called pus. These germs, with perhaps one or two other varieties, are, then, the cause of all the trouble following wounds and operations; and the whole problem of antiseptic surgery is to keep them out, tn kill them if they get lit, and to allow free exit from the wound to such as may not have been killed. They are killed by dry heat 2.50° F.. by steam, by water at the boiling-point, and by various drugs. Of the latter, practically the most useful are corrosive sublimate