A guide to the aseptic treatment of wounds / by C. Schimmelbusch ; preface by E. von Bergmann ; tr. from the 2nd rev. German ed., with express permission of the author, by Frank J. Thornbury ; with 43 illustrations.

  • Schimmelbusch, Curt, 1860-1895.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A guide to the aseptic treatment of wounds / by C. Schimmelbusch ; preface by E. von Bergmann ; tr. from the 2nd rev. German ed., with express permission of the author, by Frank J. Thornbury ; with 43 illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    which the contents of sewers were allowed to flow slowly and settle outside of the city of Carlisle), in order to destroy the germs which the air had already carried into the wound. He then applied the dressings, which were saturated with carbolic acid, and with the greatest possible care bandaged in the en- tire wound, making the occlusion complete by using a layer of impermeable material so that entrance of germs from the air was precluded. During the operation and at the subsequent change of dressing, the carbolized spray in addition was dis- seminated over the entire region of the wound, this being in- tended to place the injured area in an atmosphere which would be entirely free from dangerous organisms of every variety. At the time when Lister made the first practical trial of his new method of treatment, our knowledge of the germs con- tained in the air was very limited. That they existed as the minutest forms of living matter had, it is true, been recognized, but regarding their extent, morphological characteristics and appearance, and their requirements for existence, almost noth- ing was known. Tyndall had shown that they appertain to the sunbeams which become visible when the rays of light fall into a dark room through a crack in the closed window shutter ; it is also a fact that Pasteur aspirated air through gun-cotton, and filtered out the germs, then dissolved the gun-cotton in ether and examined it microscopically, and that Pouchet col- lected particles of dust on moist plates against which air was blown, but all these investigations have availed us but very little. The fact that in a comparatively short time we have attained a quite thorough and more or less complete under- standing of the extent, size, form, appearance, and manner of life of the air bacteria, is the result of nothing more than the brilliantly perfected methods of bacteriological investiga- tion for which our tribute of gratitude is due pre-eminently to Robert Koch.