ANTISEPTIC, any substance which re tards or prevents the growth and development of lower forms of organisms injurious to higher forms of life. The discovery that the breaking down or decay of organic bodies was caused by minute plants, fungi, bacteria, etc., led to the idea of preventing the action of these bodies by the employment of some antagonistic sub stances. In medicine it had been found that many of these bacteria produced a condition known as sepsis, or poisoning, and when Sir Joseph Lister first used the carbolic spray to prevent the development of these bacteria the word antiseptic came to be applied to any sub stance that inhibits the growth or destroys bac terial agents of putrefaction. A germicide is any agent that kills these low forms of plant life; fungicides are used on the large fungi; bactericides on the bacteria. The word dis infectant properly applies to a substance used for the destruction of a definite infecting agent, such as exists in phthisical sputum, or in ty phoid urine or stools, but it too often is em ployed for some remedy that merely destroys a disagreeable odor — a deodorant. Thus most so-called disinfectants, manufactured to place in closets or urinals, are really nothing but strong-smelling deodorants. As disinfectants they are wholly useless. Germicides, bacteri cides and septicides may be divided into two groups, physical and chemical. In the former group is heat, the most important of all germi cides. Burning is the best means for the disin fection of the non-valuable surroundings of patients who have had any severe contagious disease such as diphtheria, typhoid fever, plague, scarlet fever, etc. It is the best agent for the destruction of all tuberculous sputum. Boiling is another efficient means of disinfecting or sterilizing. The boiling of water or milk sus pected to contain the bacteria of typhoid or diphtheria is effective. Boiling all bed linen which has been in contact with contagious dis eases is advisable.
The boiling of preserves and the airtight sealing of the jars immediately afterward to prevent the entrance of the germs of molds and similar growths is practised by all housewives. When after this the preserved fruit (ferments,* it has either not been boiled long enough, the jars were not thoroughly cleansed by boiling water, the rubbers and tops not sterilized or a hole has been left whereby the spores of molds have entered. Cold is a preservative only: it prevents the multiplication of these low forms of plant life, but does not destroy them. The conditions which favor putrefaction are: a moist atmosphere, warmth and the presence of micro-organisms.
Chemical antiseptics have been in use ever since the work of Tyndall, Pasteur, Koch and Lister showed the activity of lower plant forms in putrefaction and sepsis. In the arts many antiseptics are used to preserve foods. The smoking of hams and other meats is the old empirical method, antedating modern means probably by hundreds of years, the smoke con taining creosote and bodies related to carbolic acid. Vinegar and spices have been long in use to preserve pickles. Sulphurous acid, alum, salicylic acid, formalin, nitre, common salt, sugar, etc., are all extensively used as food pre servatives, but the four first named are consid ered injurious to health and are forbidden in many States. Other uses of antiseptics in the arts are: the preservation of wood from decay by impregnation with creosote and related fungicides, the preservation of pastes and mucilage i with carbolic or salicylic acid, the preservation of sizes used in paper making by sulphurous acid and the use of sodium bisul phate or chloride of lime in sterilizing drinking water. Sodium hypochlorite is used to sterilize swimming pools, and chlorine peroxide for pol luted waters. Benzoate of soda is used to pre serve prepared foods and permitted by the authorities in limited quantities. Cinnamic acid is used to impregnate the wrappers in which butter is packed. In modern surgery it is not the destruction of bacteria, but rather their prevention, that is desired, and asepsis, or the prevention of infection, is the modern method, not antisepsis. By thorough sterilization of everything that comes in contact with a patient's body the modern surgeon prevents infection by keeping bacteria out. His instruments are sterilized by boiling in water, by steam or a high degree of dry heat, by washing in chemical antiseptics or by exposing them to formaldehyde vapor. Should the nature of a wound be such that it is already infected, then antiseptics are of service. The most valuable surgical antisep tics are the phenols and their derivatives (car bolic acid, salic'lates, etc.), salts of mercury, silver lead, aluminum, copper, and zinc, prepara tions of chlorine, iodine, bromine, permangan ate of potash, benzoic acid, organic aldehydes, formaldehyde, benzaldehyde, alcohol, thymol, menthol, eucalyptol and hydrogen peroxide. Such trade names as Dioxogen, Hydrozone, Glycozone, Pyrozone, and Peroxols, are given to mixtures of hydrogen peroxide with various other disinfectants. See BACTERIA; FUNGI; INFECTION; KOCH ; PASTEUR; SPONTANEOUS GENERATION.