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ANTISEPTICS (Gr. avrl, against, and 6...

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 146 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ANTISEPTICS (Gr. avrl, against, and 6177rrnKor, putrefactive) , the name given to substances which are used for the prevention of bacterial development in See also:animal or See also:vegetable See also:matter. Some are true germicides, capable of destroying the bacteria, whilst others merely prevent or inhibit their growth. The antiseptic method of treating wounds (see See also:SURGERY) was introduced by See also:Lord See also:Lister, and was an outcome of See also:Pasteur's germ theory of putrefaction. For the growth of bacteria there must be a certain See also:food See also:supply, moisture, in most cases See also:oxygen, and a certain minimum temperature (see See also:BACTERIOLOGY). These conditions have been specially studied and applied in connexion with the preserving of food (see See also:Fool) PRESERVATION) and in the See also:ancient practice of See also:embalming the dead, which is the earliest See also:illustration of the systematic use of antiseptics (see EMBALMING). In See also:early inquiries a See also:great point was made of the prevention of putrefaction, and See also:work was done in the way of. finding how much of an See also:agent must be added to a given See also:solution, in See also:order that the bacteria accidentally See also:present might not develop. But for various reasons this was an inexact method, and to-See also:day an antiseptic is judged by its effects on pure cultures of definite pathogenic microbes, and on their vegetative and spore forms. Their standardization has been effected in many instances, and a See also:water solution of carbolic See also:acid of a certain fixed strength is now taken as the See also:standard with which other antiseptics are compared. The more important of those in use to-day are carbolic acid, the perchloride and biniodide of See also:mercury, See also:iodoform, See also:formalin, salicylic acid, &c. Carbolic acid is germicidal in strong solution, inhibitory in weaker ones. The so-called " pure" acid is applied to infected living tissues, especially to tuberculous sinuses or wounds, after scraping them, in order to destroy any See also:part of the tuberculous material still remaining. A solution of 1 in 20 is used to sterilize See also:instruments before an operation, and towels or See also:lint to be used for the patient.

Care must always be taken to avoid absorption (see CARBOLIC ACID). The per-chloride of mercury is another very powerful antiseptic used in solutions of strength I in 2000, 1 in r000 and 1 in soo. This or the biniodide of mercury is the last antiseptic applied to the surgeon's and assistants' hands before an operation begins. They are not, however, to be used in the disinfection of instruments, nor where any large abraded See also:

surface would favour absorption. Boracic acid receives no mention here; though it is popularly known as an antiseptic, it is in reality only a soothing fluid, and bacteria will flourish comfortably in contact with it. Of the dry antiseptics iodoform is constantly used in septic or tuberculous wounds, and it appears to have an inhibitory See also:action on Bacillus See also:tuberculosis. Its See also:power depends on the fact that it is slowly decomposed by the tissues, and See also:free See also:iodine given off. Among the more recently introduced antiseptics, chinosol, a yellow substance freely soluble in water, and Lysol, another See also:coal-See also:tar derivative, are much used. But every See also:anti-septic, however See also:good, is more or less toxic and irritating to a See also:ANTITHESIS wounded surface. Hence it is that the " antiseptic " method has been replaced in the surgery of to-day by the "aseptic" method (see SURGERY), which relies on keeping free from the invasion of bacteria rather than destroying them when present.

End of Article: ANTISEPTICS (Gr. avrl, against, and 6177rrnKor, putrefactive)

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