Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 131, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1917 — Do Not Touch or Wash Wound, Is Injunction of Red Cross [ARTICLE]

Do Not Touch or Wash Wound, Is Injunction of Red Cross

If the wound is touched by the hand billions of pus germs will be carried into it. If washed with water even more germs will be carried into the wound, and not only that, but the deep parts of the wound, which previously no germs had reached, will have billions of germs carried to them. Therefore do not handle or wash a wound, says the Red Cross Magazine. Even if an antiseptic solution is used, It will carry pus germs from the skin and deeper than they-have been before, and no antiseptic, such

as bichloride of mercery, can be used strong enough to kill these germs, as it will also destroy the cells of the body and so make them less able to fight the germs. Peroxide is specially dangerous in deep wounds, as it carries pus germs everywhere and is not strong enough to destroy them. Placing a clean dressing, which means a dressing that has been sterilized surgically (such as the Red Cross dressing) on the wound will introduce no more germs and will not injure the delicate tissues of the body exposed in the wound. Moreover, the flow of blood and blood serum (the liquid part of the blood) will be in the direction of the dressing, so the germs will be constantly going out. This, therefore, is the way to take care of a wound.