Septic Antiseptic

When a soldier is wounded by shrapnel, or a civilian by splinters of flying glass, don't treat the wound with an antiseptic. This piece of advice was given by the Journal of the American Medical Association last week. In fact, said the editor of its correspondence column, "The use of iodine or mercurials in such wounds is to be discouraged or even forbidden." Reason: antiseptics may kill more body cells than bacteria, thereby prevent healing. First Aiders should do no more than stop bleeding, place a pad of sterile gauze on the wound.

Dirty as they may be, said the Journal, "fresh wounds should be visualized as containing relatively few bacteria." These are soon killed by body tissues, "if given a chance." Infection arises when wounds are washed with soap & water, or flushed with antiseptic. This is "almost sure to introduce many new bacteria, and the entire wound may thus become seeded with infectious organisms." (Streptococci and staphylococci, the British found, are usually spread in the hospital by nurses and doctors who do not use masks, or fail to disinfect their fingers.)

Since the old scourge of tetanus can be controlled by injections of antitoxin, the main germ to worry about in open wounds is the bacillus which causes gas gangrene. Open wounds should be treated thus: 1) all glass, bullets, stones, shrapnel, etc. must be cut out of the wound; 2) all dead and bruised tissue-breeding grounds for the bacillus-must be snipped away so that the blood stream can get directly at the germs and destroy them; 3) sulfanilamide powder should be sprinkled on the raw surface, and the patient kept at rest.

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