Antiseptic surgery : its principles, practice, history and results / by W. Watson Cheyne.
- Watson Cheyne
- Date:
- 1882
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Antiseptic surgery : its principles, practice, history and results / by W. Watson Cheyne. Source: Wellcome Collection.
156/656 page 128
![of this system in Mr. Lister's hands. This will not only be interesting but instructive, as showing how aseptic surgery may be carried ont in circumstances where spray, gauze, &c., cannot be obtained. The first cases in which the treatment was tried were com- pound fractures, and the first attempt recorded by ]\Ir. Lister was made in March 1865. This attempt was unsuccessful, as Mr. Lister subsequently believed, from mismanagement.' The next case was a compound fracture of the tibia, caused by the wheel of a waggon passing over the leg. The external wound in this case was H inch long, and | inch broad. A piece of lint dipped in carbolic acid (which was at that time only got as an impure liquid known as German creosote) was placed upon the wound. Four days later this lint was removed, and the wound dressed with lint soaked in water in which this im- pure carbolic acid was diffused. Five days afterwards a solution of one part of carbolic acid in from 10 to 20 parts of olive oil was used for four days, and then ordinary water dressing was resorted to. The aim in this case was to form a crust consisting of lint, carbolic acid, and blood, which wovild protect the deeper parts from putrefaction. In this instance, however, the scab came off on the fourth day, and in order to avoid this occurrence, Mr. Lister, in his next cases, applied a piece of lint dipped in pure carbolic acid as before, large enough to overlap the sound skin for a quarter of an inch all round, and covered with oiled paper, applying for the first foiu- days outside this arrangement a piece of lint soaked in pure carbolic acid. The crust was left untouched till the eleventh day, and then water dressing was used. It now became evident that, owing to the volatiUty ot the carbolic acid, means were required to prevent its evaporation. Accordingly, in the next cases a layer of sheet lead or of block tin was applied outside and overlapping the crust. Up to this time there was no attempt made to pmufy the interior of the wound in the first instance. How was it, then, that no putrefaction occurred? Probably for the foUowmg reasons. It may have been that no septic pai'ticles had got 1 See numbers of the Lancet for 1867.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20409928_0158.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
