Abstract
THE winter session of the Pharmaceutical Society's evening meetings was inaugurated on November 14 by Prof. A. Fleming, professor of bacteriology in the University of London, who delivered a lecture on “Antiseptics in War-Time Surgery”. He said that in the present War surgeons should be able to undertake their work more efficiently than they were in 1914 in view of the chemical antiseptics which are now available but were then lacking. Thus the present situation in respect of the treatment of war wounds is infinitely more satisfactory than it was in the War of 1914–18. The antiseptics in use in 1914 have since been shown to be of little value for use in war-time surgery. Carbolic acid, for example, is effective when used otherwise than in connexion with the human body, but inside the body its lack of value is shown by the diminution of its efficiency with increasing concentrations, this being due to its action in destroying the leucocytes. Consequently carbolic acid is not of any great use asan antiseptic in the treatment of wounds.
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Antiseptics in War-Time Surgery. Nature 146, 680 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/146680b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/146680b0