Volume 1

A text-book of surgery / by Hermann Tillmanns ; translated from the 7th German edition by Benjamin T. Tilton and John Rogers ; edited by Lewis A. Stimson.

  • Tillmanns, Hermann, 1844-1927.
Date:
1901-1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: A text-book of surgery / by Hermann Tillmanns ; translated from the 7th German edition by Benjamin T. Tilton and John Rogers ; edited by Lewis A. Stimson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/858 (page 5)
    steam, at a temperature of 100° to 130° C. (2l2° to 266° F.), enters the inner compartment of the apparatus from above, and escapes through the opening R into a lead spiral in a condenser filled with water. The air between the double-walled water ves- sel and the metallic enclosure, which is protected by asbestos, escapes through the openings at 0. At the end of the sterilisation the water can be drawn off through the faucet H, the cover is removed, and the sterilised article taken out. In order that the sterilised dressings can be kept sterile, the tin vessel devised by Schimmelbusch (Fig. 2) is used. This is provided with a tight cover (d) and a great number of holes (a b) ; the latter can be opened and closed at will by a strip of tin. This tin vessel is filled with dressings and placed in the steriliser. We shall return again to the subject of sterilisation of the dressings, operation gowns, compresses, etc., and presently describe the sterilisation of the instruments by boiling for five minntes in a one-per-cent, soda solution, the cleansing of the hands, etc. For the disinfection of large articles, such as mattresses, clothes, etc., the disinfector of Rietschel and Henneberg is particularly good. In order to be sure that the temperature in the steriliser reaches a sufficient height, different appliances have been made use of. For example, a bell is attached which rings when the tem- perature reaches 130° C., or small glass tubes containing crystals of phthalic acid, or alloys of lead, zinc, and bismuth, which melt at a temperature of 110° C., are inserted. Strehl is right in recommending that steril- isers which are heated by gas, and are used in the operating room or its vicinity, should be supplied with an arrangement for carrying off the gas, in order that the air in the operating room may not be contaminated by the harmful gases, and the danger of decomposition of the chloroform (see page 27) may be avoided. The cleanliness of the operating room and of everything it contains must always be rigorously enforced by the surgeon. Operating Room.—The operating room should be as light as possible, well ventilated, and plentifully supplied with arrangements for wash- ing, receptacles for disinfecting solutions, especially three- to five-per- Fig. 3.—Stand for solution bottles. Fig. 2. — Sheet- iron vessel for dressing mate- rials (Schim- melbusch).