SEASON.
When it is possible to choose the season most favorable for the operation, and for securing the best chances of recovery, the spring, or the early stages of the fall, are those to which the operator should give the preference, provided the atmospheric temperature is moderate and not susceptible to sudden variations. It is to be remembered that at some periods of the year, without any known or apparent cause, a tendency appears in wounds to take on gangrenous or septicemic complications which are not so generally observed in the mild weather of spring and early fall. Another essential condition which surgeons will do well to take into consideration is the general health of the subject, as in all cases of surgical interference, any diseased tendency already existing (perhaps latent) in the patient, such as an anæmic condition, a gourmy predisposition, or typhoid susceptibility are likely to give rise to the development of serious and perhaps fatal sequelæ to an operation which, simple as it may be in itself, is nevertheless not without danger, or of possible complications of its own.