The use of antiseptics in midwifery : their value and practical application / by Robert Boxall.

  • Boxall, Robert.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The use of antiseptics in midwifery : their value and practical application / by Robert Boxall. 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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    by steeping in boiling water immediately before use, and sponges should be steeped in the same way. These measures as applied to the hands, instruments, &c., demand no special apparatus, but are, nevertheless, of the most vital importance to asepticism. The pad occupies the same relation to the labour case as the dressings to ovariotomy, and, like the pledget of cotton in the test-tube to which I previously alluded, is intended to obviate the entry of micro-organisms from without. Now, in order to prevent the access of microbes which are ever present, and are wafted about in the atmosphere, to the nutrient medium within the tube, the crudest form of cotton is found to be sufficient,—that is, provided the cotton be required to act solely as an efficient filter to the air as it passes in. But if the cotton become saturated it may be otherwise. In that case it is neces- sary to renew the pledgets before the microbes reach the portion saturated ; otherwise, being deprived of filtering power, the plug becomes no longer capable of preventing the microbes from spreading to the rest of the tube con- tents. Under such circumstances, advantage would accrue from combining with the plug an antiseptic agent to destroy the microbes. But the same end would be gained by constantly renewing the plug before it became saturated. Owing to the discharges incidental to a labour case, the pad must inevitably soon become soaked through unless renewed, and, owing to the close proximity of anus and urethra, the dressing is apt to become soiled and saturated and to require frequent renewal. The same may happen also in an ovariotomy where there is much discharge, and drainage is employed. Pads of absorbent cotton, or of wood-wool enclosed in gauze or lint, should be used in place of diapers, and burnt immediately after use, the cost being no greater than the wmshing of the diapers. I bring to your notice the kind of pad in use at the General Lying-in Hospital. These pads are of the simplest possible construction, consisting merely of a handful of wood-wool wrapped in a square of
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