Discussion—Should Antiseptic Vaginal Douching Be Made a Routine Practice in the Puerperium

practice when antiseptics as a system were adopted by obstetricians. It formed an integral part of the antiseptic management of labour and the puerperium. The objects aimed at in the antiseptic system are:?The prevention of the introduction of germs, i.e., antisepsis before confinement, and paralysing their action, i.e., antisepsis after confinement. Although at the first the methods were complex, including even the adoption of the spray during delivery, yet all that is left now to us of the routine use of antiseptics is their application to fingers and instruments, and the antiseptic douching of the vagina before and after labour. Now, I think 110 one would question for a moment that the routine use of antiseptics has been the greatest addition to obstetric practice since the introduction of chloroform. This is not the occasion for me to point out the revolution which