After the wound has been thoroughly cleansed by water and antiseptics, it should then be bandaged with a cloth that has been previously boiled and dried, if no regular surgical dressing is at hand. Every precaution should then be taken to prevent it being reopened. Collodion is sometimes used over small wounds, and is quite efficient in that it forms a coating over any surface upon which it is placed that is impermeable to both air and water. Small wounds that have been thoroughly cleansed and disinfected with tincture of iodine may be safely and satisfactorily closed by means of the substance just mentioned, but it should never be forgotten that the germ of lockjaw--which is the one, ordinarily, most to be dreaded in such injuries--lives and grows best in the absence of the oxygen of the air, and that a covering of collodion would materially assist in the development of this dreadful disease.
In those instances where pus forms in wounds, they should be at once reopened and allowed to drain. It very often follows after cuts--particularly if they be not properly cleansed--that a scab forms on the outside, holding beneath a greater or less amount of pus. The presence of the latter can generally be inferred by a wound presenting a red and angry appearance around its edges, and from swelling and pain. As soon as such a condition is observed, the scab should be thoroughly soaked in water and removed, and it is then necessary that the wound be kept open and allowed to drain freely until it heals up from the bottom. A failure to observe precautions of this kind may result in blood-poisoning, and finally even in death. After a wound begins to suppurate it does little good to put antiseptics into it, as they cause considerable irritation, and under no circumstances do they put an end to the pus formation. Open drainage of the wound, and keeping up the general health of the patient, are the only means that we possess of successfully combating conditions of this kind.
Inasmuch as we possess an antitoxin that unquestionably has the power of preventing lockjaw, if given sufficiently early, it is the part of wisdom to administer at once a sufficient dose of this substance to any child who has received a penetrating wound from some dirty object, or from the explosion of fire-crackers. Statistics show that under such circumstances lockjaw may be prevented in almost all cases. If we wait until the disease develops, the antitoxin is of no value.