Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1893 — Surgical Instruments. [ARTICLE]

Surgical Instruments.

Within the last ten years there habeen a complete revolution in the manu_ facture of surgical instruments. Anti septic methods now govern all operations. Not only are wounds kept free from bacterial germs by spraying them with preparations of carbolic acid and other substances destructive to such life,but all the tools employed by the surgeon are steralized by heat. Even the dressings are cooked in an oven before they are appl’ed. By such means many operations are now performed, with almost invariable suocess, which until recently, were nearly always fatal. For instance, such operations as laparotomy—lately performed on James Gordon Bennett—requiring the cutting open of the abdomen, now succeed in ninsty-five cases out of every 100, while formerly only five persons in 100 recovered. This result is wholly due to the discoveries of the bacteriologists.—(Washingtou Star.