LISTER REMEMBERED

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 71, 25 March 1937, Page 9

LISTER REMEMBERED

A FAMOUS SURGEON

On August. 12. 1865, an eleven-year-o'd boy was carried screaming to the great Royal Infirmary in Glasgow. The boy had beenknocked down ;by - a cart, and as the wheel rolled over hisf left leg.' both leg bones were broken. ; When surgeons in the Scotch hospital examined him, they saw a nasty, gaping wound out of which protruded the broken ends of the bones. It was a typical compound fracture and seemed ready for the typical treatment, says a writer in the "San Francisco Chronicle."

But no ordinary treatment, was awaiting :the'boy. In charge of .his case was Dr. Joseph Lister, assisted by young Dr.'John-Macfee.

The usual method would have been to put,the bones back in place and Wen. keep them there with splints. Nothing much would have been done about the wound—it would have been allowed to Jester and then, probably to heal. But Lister and Macfee had other plans. They set the bones in the standard way, but they refused to leave the wound alone. Lister, who had been listening to the ravings of wild Louis Pasteur over in France, was convinced that microbes had something to do-with disease. He decided to keep the microbes out of this young patient —to apply some chemical which would kill germs. The compound he selected was phenoj, or carbolic acid. Under his directions, Macfee dipped a piece oi' lint in liquefied phenol, and thenpaying no attention to the boy's cries —wrapped it in place over the wound. Splints were applied, and the boy was placed in bed.

. A few days later. Lister and Macfee ~ r With all the other doctors watching over'their shoulders —cut away the bandages and looked at the wound. Part of the surface skin had sloughed off —that phenol .was powerful stuff! — but there wasn't a trace of pus to be seen. . .

The wound remained uninfected, and was completely healed in a few weeks. Similarly the bones mended, and the young victim was soon fully recovered.

A report on that case —the first successful use of an antiseptic—was pub r lishedin England two years later under-the title, "On a new method of treating compound fracture, abscess, etc." ; It marked the beginning of a new.era in medicir,?—an era in which microbes were recognised as dangerous, and battled by every'possible'method.

Twenty-five years ago, Lister—then Sir Joseph—died, forever famous as the founder'of antiseptic methods. Recently death came to his assistant. Dr. Macfee, His passing removed probably the last man alive who took part in bringing modern medicine out of its swaddling clothes.