Kangaroo and Reindeer Tendons
are prepared essentially as is catgut, but if boiled in alcohol they must be kept covered with the fluid, as they tend to disintegrate.
Drainage Tubes
of rubber should be boiled in soda solution for fifteen minutes, and may then be stored either in 1 per cent. formalin solution, or dry in a suitable tube.
Oiled Silk and Rubber Tissues
are first prepared by washing in 1 to 500 sublimate solution, then dried, and exposed in an air-tight jar to the vapor of formalin or paraform.
The above are the methods usually in vogue in the writer’s clinic, and may be relied upon. These materials should be frequently tested by dropping fragments into culture tubes and watching the result, but only after taking the precaution to precipitate or neutralize the antiseptic previously used in their preparation.
Antiseptic Solutions, Applications, etc.
—In well-regulated clinics sterile salt solution is always at hand. As has been stated the old six per mille solution may be improved by adding 1 part of potassium chloride and 2 parts calcium chloride. For emergency purposes tablets are now prepared which will permit the rapid preparation of these, of any desired strength. To this a little corrosive sublimate may be added without producing decomposition. When sublimate is used alone, or in other combinations, a little vegetable or mineral acid, such as tartaric or hydrochloric, should be added, as most of the water used contains lime.
When a maximum of bactericidal effect is desired with a minimum of irritation, the silver salts, either the lactate or the citrate, will probably afford the best results. The former may be used as strong as 1 to 300, the latter 1 to 500. The writer has frequently used these solutions for washing out the peritoneal cavity, in cases of tuberculous peritonitis, where they serve their purpose admirably. For washing out tuberculous joints and many other abscess cavities, solutions of silver nitrate of 1 to 1000 to 1 to 2000 are most serviceable; or, for the same purposes, boiled water, to which has been added sufficient tincture of iodine to give it a mahogany color. In caring for such cases it is good practice to alternate the solutions, using them on alternate days.