“You see,” he explained, “the trouble with wounds is that germs get into them, so the most important thing of all is to cleanse them thoroughly, and after that to keep them clean. I’m using boiled water”—he was sponging the wound as he talked,—“because boiling kills all the microbes there may be in water.”
“But what is the salt for?” asked Ed.
“To disinfect the wound. You see there must be lots of microbes in it already, and salt kills them. That’s what we salt meat for when we wish to preserve it. The salt kills microbes, and so the meat keeps sound.”
“Then it is the presence of microbes that causes decay in meat?”
“Yes, or decay in anything else. If we hadn’t thrown Jim Hughes’s whiskey overboard, I’d wash this wound with that. It would make Phil jump, but it would do the work. You know nothing decays in alcohol. However, the salt will do, I think.”
When Irv had satisfied himself that the wound was sufficiently cleansed, he drew the edges of the cut together and held them there with sticking plaster.
“Now, Ed,” he said, “won’t you please bring me some cloths that you’ll find in the oven of the stove?”
Ed went at once, but wondering. When he returned, Irv finished dressing the wound, and all went to supper.
“Why did you put the rags in the oven, Irv?” asked Ed. “I noticed you didn’t even try to keep them warm after I brought them to you.”