LORD LISTER

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 114, 17 May 1927, Page 6

LORD LISTER

HIS GREAT WORK

FATHER OF MODERN SURGERY

It is not a profession, it is not a nation, it is humanity itself which, with uncovered head, salutes you.

"That tribute is as true to-day as on the day when it war spoken/ writes the medical c. .-respondent of the London "Times" n an appreciation of "Joseph Lister," the father of modern surgery." The sth April was tho contenaty' of the birth of Lord Lister. In honour of the"occasion, "The Times" has published a valuable health and hygiene number ("Times Weekly," 7th April), comprising thirty articles covering a wide area of the field of modern medicine. Somo of the articles are written by leaders of the medical profession, and all are of the highest standard, reviewing the progress of medical science since Lister and Pasteur made their wonderful discoveries a**i did their epoch-making work. "Lister . emaius, a contury after his birth, and will so remain throughout tho centuries, one of the greatest of the saviours of his fcllow-mon. The man who madu modens surgery possible, who. abolished from the world tho horrors o_ surgical fevcrj' who, with Pasteur, lr!' deep and strong too foundations of bar' rlology, belongs, and must ever belong, to tho ranks of tho immortals whoso memory is blessed." After describing tho fever and suppuration which invariably followed operations in former days, tho writer continues: "And then one day tho Professor of Chemistry in Glasgow handed to Lister a number "tof papers on the subject of putrefaction whi^n had just arrived from Paris. These papers wore the work of a French chemist named Louis iPastour.' 4 Lister read tho papers, in which Pasteur told of tho discovery of tho 'world of the infinitely small,' and- how this world, by its ceaseless activity, brought about all thoso processes of fermentation and souring and decomposition ant* -putrefaction which aro commonplaces of everyday experience. Instantly the question leaped to Lister's mind: Did tho 'world of tho infinitely small' bring about also the suppuration of wounds? "Lister resolved to operato in future in such a way that, if the germs were indeed liablo to onter wounds in the skin, they would bo killed on entering. Ho chose the substance carbolic acid as the best suited to his requirements. He washed the sum on which he meant to operate with a solution of carbolic* acid and then, as he operated, he j-pplied, this-solution also to the wound. ' When., the operation was finished the wouncl was covered with clean cotton.wool to serve' as a barrier to the en' „• of gerina. ; "The /results of this system, rough and ready as it now seems, 'fat transcended the wildest hopes or imaginings of the young surgeon. Instead of suppuration there was clean and sweet h°aling 5 instead of fever there was comfort • and repose; instead of death there was life. ANOTHER STEP IN PROGRESS. "But Lister was not content merely to kill tho germs of suppuration; a higher aim now began *o possess his mind—namely, -to prevent these germs from entering wounds'at all. . . .With this idea in hig mind the great surgeon began to develop an aseptic-— as opposed to an antiseptic—technique. The watchword was cleanliness; not the mere cleanliness; of ordinary life, but the minute. microscopio cleanliness which abolishes the micro-organisms of disease. , . . And once again Lister's foresight and genius met with their full reward. Asepsis achieved everything which antisepsis had achieved and afforded, in addition, freedom from irritation—that is, from the effects of antiseptics. ... "From that hour until the present day tho fame of this great and good man has steadily increased until now it is seen that Lister was something more than a mere pioneer, something more even than tho father of modern surgery. He was rather tho architect of an era in human progress. His work has already been instrumental, directly and indirectly, in reducing tho death rate in this country by nearly half, and it has already added a substantial term -of years to the 'espeqtation of ljf«' of evory individual in this country." ■. ■. - . -■'■■ .' ■■■■ .■■■•• . -