Antiseptic surgery : its principles, practice, history and results / by W. Watson Cheyne.

  • Cheyne, William Watson, Sir, 1852-1932.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Antiseptic surgery : its principles, practice, history and results / by W. Watson Cheyne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    Then come the views of Caignaril-Latour and Schwann, referring these changes to the entrance into the fluids of solid particles from without, which may be destroyed by heat. These authors go further, and ascribe the whole fermentative process to the growth of the organisms which are found in the ferment- ing liquids. And, lastly, we have the view of Liebig, who looks on oxy- gen as in so far favouring fermentation that it causes erema- eausis, the molecules undergoing this change being now capable of setting up putrefactive and other fermentative changes. The latter changes are therefore due to the presence of some substance itself undergoing change, and to this substance the term ‘ ferment ’ is applied. This ferment may be destroyed by heat. It will be more convenient if for the present we class these views under two heads—the oxygen theory (Gay-Lussac’s) on the one hand, and the particulate theory (Schwann’s) on the other. At a later period we shall determine whether Liebig’s or Schwann’s is the more tenable view. I have already mentioned the researches of Schulze, Schwann, Ure, and Helmholtz as tending more or less to upset the views of Gay-Lussac. The next research of importance on this subject is that by Schroeder and Dusch.1 Their aim was to see whether filtration of the air would be sufficient to prevent the fermentation of boiled fluids. Their apparatus was the following:— A glass vessel containing the material to be tested (meat infusion, &c.,) Avas closed by a close-fitting cork, which was dipped into hot wax previous to its insertion. This cork had two holes in it which gave exit to two tubes bent outside to a right angle, these tubes being also firmly embedded in the cork ; one tube was for the purpose ol con- ducting air to the vessel, and the other to suck air out of it. The conducting tube was connected by means of a short piece of vulcanised caoutchouc with a glass tube; the latter was again attached to a wider tube (1 inch in diameter and 20 inches long) by means of a similar cork to that in the bottle, and at the other end of this t ube was a cork with a bit of tubing in it, called the open tube. The wide Annalcn da- Cheinie mid Pharmacic, 1854. 1