Pathogenic Bacteria

116 PA THOGENIC BACTERIA.

present generally employed, and recommended by Welch
and Hunter Robb, is as follows: The nails must be
trimmed short and perfectly cleansed. The hands are
washed thoroughly for ten minutes in water of as high a
temperature as can comfortably be borne, soap and a brush
previously sterilized being freely used, and afterward the
excess of soap washed off in clean hot water. The hands
are then immersed for from one to two minutes in a
warm saturated solution of permanganate of potassium,
then in a warm • saturated solution of oxalic acid, until
complete decolorization of the permanganate occurs, after
which they are washed free from the acid in clean warm
water or salt-solution. Finally, they are soaked for two
minutes in a i : 500 solution of bichlorid of mercury,
after which they are ready for use.

Lockwood,1 of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, recommends
after the use of the scissors and penknife, scrubbing the
hands and arms for three minutes in hot water and soap
to remove all grease and dirt. The scrubbing brush
ought to be steamed or boiled before use, and kept in
i : 1000 biniodid of mercury solution. When the soap-
suds have been thoroughly washed away with plenty of
clean water, the hands and arms are thoroughly washed
and soaked for not less than two minutes in a solution of
biniodid of mercury in methylated spirit; i part of the
biniodid in 500 of the spirit. Hands that cannot bear
i : 1000 bichlorid and 5 per cent, carbolic solutions, bear
frequent treatment with the biniodid. After the spirit
and biniodid have been used for not less than two min-
utes, the solution is washed off in i : 2000 or i : 4000
biniodid of mercury solution.

Catgut cannot be sterilized by boiling without deterio-
ration. The present method of preparing it is to dry it
in a hot-air chamber and then boil it in cumol, which is
afterward evaporated and the skeins preserved in sterile
test-tubes or special receptacles plugged with sterile cot-
ton. Cumol was first introduced for this purpose by

1 Brit. Med. Jour., July II, 1896.