WHEN PUS HAS FORMED notwithstanding efforts made to cure the inflammation, as soon as it is near the surface so that it can be detected by the fluctuation, the abscess should be opened. During the last few years careful surgeons have been unwilling to make any incision or lance even an ordinary abscess without employing some antiseptic method, such perhaps as the following: The patient’s skin where the incision is to be made, is first to be washed in 1 to 1000 bichloride of mercury solution—hands and instruments employed in the work must touch nothing that is not sterilized; hands must be washed in the same solution before operating—sponges that are used must be cleaned and stored in a 1 to 20 carbolic acid solution, and instruments must be soaked in the same for 15 minutes before being used, and some apply a large wad of bichloride of cotton or gauze to catch the exuded pus. The following is Lister’s antiseptic method which he first directed, to prevent the introduction of air containing living germs: “A solution of one part of crystalized carbolic acid in four parts of boiled linseed oil having been prepared, a piece of rag from four to six inches square is dipped into the oily mixture and laid upon the skin where the incision is to be made. The lower edge of the rag being then raised a scalpel or bistoury dipped in the oil is plunged into the abscess and an opening about three-quarters of an inch in length is made, and the instant the knife is withdrawn the rag is dropped upon the skin as an antiseptic curtain, beneath which the pus flows out into a vessel placed to receive it, and all the pus should be pressed out as near as may be. For a dressing afterward Playfair recommends the following: About six teaspoonfuls of the above mentioned solution of carbolic acid in linseed oil is mixed up with common whiting to the consistence of firm paste; this is spread upon a piece of tin foil about six inches square, so as to form a layer about a quarter of an inch thick; the tin-foil thus spread with putty is placed upon the skin, so that the middle of it corresponds to the position of the incision, the antiseptic rag used in making the incision being removed the instant before. The tin-foil is then fixed securely by adhesive straps, the lower edge being left free for the escape of the discharge into a folded towel placed over it, and secured by a bandage. The dressing is changed once in twenty-four hours, as a general rule, and must be methodically done. A second similar piece of tin-foil having been spread with the putty, a piece of rag is dipped in the oily solution and placed on the incision the moment the first tin is removed. This prevents mischief during the cleaning of the skin with a dry cloth, and pressing out the discharge from the cavity.”