Before injecting a hernia the operator should be thoroughly acquainted with the manner of diffusion of paraffin in the tissues. This experience can be gained by the making of numerous injections into the carcass of a small animal and the subsequent careful dissection of the animal. A dead cat, dog, rabbit, or chicken may be used for experimental injections and many such injections should be made.
Hyperinjection of a hernial canal should be religiously avoided.
Should the operation fail and the patient suffer from the presence of the paraffin it can be removed by surgical means and at the same time the open operation performed.
The presence of the paraffin will not interfere with the successful performance of the open operation nor will it complicate the operation so that the chances of a radical cure are not
diminished from this method, nor is the patient liable to a slower convalescence.
Vehement protests against the use of paraffin injections are to be expected from surgeons doing the open operation, and unbiased readers should not be misled by condemnatory remarks from inexperienced sources.
PREPARATION OF THE SKIN.
The hair over the pubes and the groin of the affected side should be cut rather close and then the parts scrubbed with a solution of green soap. A small amount of a forty per cent. solution of formaldehyde may be added to the soap solution as this agent is a very powerful antiseptic.