LORD LISTER DEAD.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1362, 13 February 1912, Page 5

LORD LISTER DEAD.

MASTER OF MODERN SURdERY. Br Tohcrauh-rreßs AssoolriUen-OopjrlßliJ London, February 11. Lord Lister is dead. (Hoe. February 12, 10.40 p.m.) London, February 12. Lord Lister died at Wnlnior on Saturday of pneumonia, lie had been ill four days. Tlio end was painless. Upon tho request; of the lioyal Society, Ihe Dean of Westminster (Dr. Kyle) offered burial in the Abbey, on condition that tlio body should bo cremated, but Lord Lister iiad expressed a desire to bo burial at Hamps-tead, with his wife. Tho first part of the service will be held in the Abbey next Friday. "Jly lord, it is not a profession, it is not a. nation, it is humanity itself, which, with uncovered head, salutes you." The.se were the words used a few years ago by Mr. Bayard, late American Ambassador to tho Court of St. James, towards tho end of a speech at the Royal Society in which reference was inado' to the beueticent effects of Lord Lister's life's work. It has been stated by a high London surgeon that Lord Lister succeeded in applying scientific and practical surgery to the benefit of mankind and to ,thc sparing of human life and miircring more, tliaji any other person who has ever lived. This high praise, of course, refers to the Lister treatment known ae "antiseptic surgery." Lord Lister was a Quaker, and was born in 1827 in the Essex village of Upton, now a part of Greater London. His father was a wine merchant in tho city of London, with a strong leaning towards scientific inquiry. After receiving his early education at a Tottenham school, kept by a Society of Friends, Lister proceeded to University College, and graduated U.A. in the University of London in 1847, at the ago of twenty. Five years later he took his first medical degree, and l>ocame a Follow of the Royal College of Surgeons. But during the early part of that period he seems to have been particularly fortunate in 'studying under Professor Sharper, who advised him "to take six weeks of Syme's Clinic." This he did, and the year 1853 found him in Edinburgh attending the vacation lectures of tho most distinguished surgeon in the kingdom. This six weeks, however, grew into years, but they mark a most interesting epoch in Lord Lister's career, since Professor Symo soon accepted him as a son-in-law by granting him the band ot his daughter Agnes— <a union whopo happiness was terminated only bv her death in 1893, leaving Lord Lister as lonely in his affections as he afterwards became solitary in his fame. Tho skill and courage of Syme completely magnetised Lister, and' a short tinw after the professor offered him an appointment which was to start his long connection with Scotland. Lister's own skill attracted such widespread attention that be was offered and accepted the Regius Professorship of Surgery in the J-'i'ivcrsity of Glasgow. That was in 1860. It was here, in this capacity, that he was destined to revolutionise the system of surgery then in vogue. Manv'of us have been charmed by the personality of the great doctor, but few of us have probably formed an adequate idea of his real services as a medical man. Lister's connection with tho Glasgow Koyal Infirmary gave him a. largo practice, and through it he became acquainted with the terrible mortality which resulted from tho infliction of eurgical wounds. He tried many expedients to improve the salubrity of tho wards. He insisted on the scrupulous washing of the bands by all those engaged in dressing wounds; in short, everything was done to 6 nil out the motive of tho disease which then caused such havoc. Soon however, Pnsteiir (who was a tanner) discovered that the real agents in the process of putrefaction were minute organisms in tho air. Lister's genius seized this opportunity, and he immediately devised a means by which air was excluded. Ho selected carbolic acid as the best form of germ-killer, and with a solution ot this, so weak as not to cause injury to the flesh, but sufficiently strong to annihilate minute animal life, ho carefullv washed out tho wound and kept i't sweet, and ho also sterilised overv instrument that was to bo used upon it. tie invented a carbolic acid spray, with which ho destroyed the germs of gangrene, which ho believed to bs floating in tho air, and thus capable of affectin" the wound. Later, however, after repeated experiments, Lister abandoned the spray, thus admitting that an antisepticall.v treated and bandaged wound could not be affected by atmospheric germs.

Tho result of Listers antiseptic treatment caused an immediate decrease in tho number of deaths from surgical wounds. His discoveries were acclaimed by tho whole world, and his fame was heralded far and wide. In ISO 9he succeeded Professor Synie as Professor of biirgery in Edinburgh Uniyersity, a post which lie Ireld until 1577, when ho removed to London after accepting a fiimilar Professorship at King's College, and in 1893 he retired from practice. The honours which followed hjs course wore conspicuous, and in om* rospoct unprecedented in Britain. He wa.s 'the first member of the medical profession fo "be raised to tho Peerage; he was created a Barnn in 189", having been jyeviously made a Baronet in 1883. A sentence from tho congratulatory letter which was sent to him on tho occasion of his eightieth birthday by the Council of tho Royal Coll<?ge of Surgeons reads: "As time passes tho blessings which have followed your life's work havo been innumerable, and the knowledge that they "ijcenmc each year more and more manifest must, we feel assured, be a source of extreme consolation to you in vonr distinguished and honourable retirement." Of late vears Lord Lister resided at a seaside cottage on the coast of a.nd it was understood that 'fi hr.rdlv ever left his room.