Practical and efficient sterilization of materials for private operations : the finished portable sterilizer / by Willy Meyer.

  • Meyer, Willy, 1858-1932.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical and efficient sterilization of materials for private operations : the finished portable sterilizer / by Willy Meyer. 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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    1. It must be portable, that is to say, not too clumsy, not too heavy, yet large enough to receive the longest instruments in use. For the sake of easy transportation an ordinary canvas cover, with round leather handle, or, if wanted, a more elegant leather-case, will prove very convenient. 2. It must permit of sterilizing everything needed for the operation as such (instruments and materials [catgut excepted]) within the same apparatus. 3. It must be practical, that is to say, it must contain everything necessary for sterilization within itself. Therefore : a. It must have its own lamp. b. It must be constructed on the assumption that warm water is not always at hand at the patient’s home. c. Measuring of the necessary amount of alcohol for the lamp and of water for the apparatus must be avoided. d. The sterilizer must do effective and reliable work in as short a time as possible, and without needing attention with reference to the proper time; in other words, it must as far as possible be 11 self acting.” Has a sterilizer of this kind hitherto been at our dis- posal ? I believe not.1 The one constructed by myself which I shall afterward take pleasure in demonstrating once more before the Section,2 according to the sugges- tion and request of our esteemed Chairman and Secretary, 1 As mentioned above, the rather clumsy, round Arnold sterilizer, which is of inferior make, can be put in a cover, with handle, and thus made portable. But instruments cannot be boiled in it. Another vessel is needed for this purpose. It is made ot tin, which easily rusts. Its use requires timing the act of sterilizing. The so-called “ Van Heusen’s Compress Heater and Sterilizer ” is, in its present shape, not recommendable for the use of the operating physician as a portable apparatus. The tray of its largest size is too small to receive all the material that is needed for a major operation ; instruments can- not be boiled in it; if wanted, only a few would be received, and have to be fished later out of the hot water in the dark ; instruments would have to boil during the entire act of sterilization, as the small tank containing the water cannot be lifted out and replaced at will; the ap- paratus also requires timing. 2 See Meeting of the Surgical Section, of January 8, 1894, Med- ical Record, February 24, 1894, p. 252.