On the evolution of wound-treatment : during the last forty years ; being the Dr. James Watson lectures delivered at the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in February, 1906 / by Sir Hector C. Cameron.

  • Hector Clare Cameron
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the evolution of wound-treatment : during the last forty years ; being the Dr. James Watson lectures delivered at the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in February, 1906 / by Sir Hector C. Cameron. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tion from the atmosphere at all?” Transactions of London Medical Congress, 1881, vol. ii., P- 372)- But he did not dare to omit the spray without positive proof that this could be done with perfect safety. Of that he was at length fully assured by a consideration of the physical constitution of the spray, coupled with the success that had attended its use through many years, in spite of the entire abandonment of other precautions against the atmosphere which, before the intro¬ duction of the spray, he had deemed essential. Especially instructive in this respect was his experience with empyema. Before the spray, he had always covered the wound during the evacua¬ tion of the pus, and at subsequent dressings, with a piece of lint soaked with a strong solution of carbolic acid, to prevent the entrance of air into the pleural cavity during inspiration. Under the spray this was discarded, and the patient was allowed to draw air freely into the pleura, both during the operation and subsequently. Yet this change, while it greatly simplified the procedure, in no way interfered with the constancy of what he used to regard as perhaps the most beautiful of all the results of antiseptic treatment. The evacuation of the original pus was followed by merely serous discharge which, copious at first, 1