A MASTER OF MODERN SCIENCE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 80, 24 May 1911, Page 5

A MASTER OF MODERN SCIENCE.

LOUD LISTER REVIEWED. “Lord Lister has entered Iris eighty-tilth year. He resides at a seaside cottage on the coast of Kent, and it is understood that he hardly over leaves his room,” says the “Morning Post.” “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 the sparing of human life and suffering more than any other person who has ever lived. This high praise, of course, refers to the Lister treatment known as ‘anti-sep-tic surgery.’ A CHEAT SURGICAL TRIUMPH. “In a letter sent to Sir Hector Cameron but a few years ago regarding Ids antiseptic treatment, Lord Lister stated that in treating surgical cases ho always endeavoured to avoid the direct action of the antiseptic substance upon the tissues, so far as was consistent, in the existing state of knowledge, with attaining the essential object of preventing the development of injurious microbes in the part concerned. In compound fracture, to w hich in 1860 ho first put in practice the antiseptic principle, ho applied undiluted carbolic acid freely to destroy the septic microbes already present. The carbolic acid formed with the blood a dense chemical compound which, together with some layers of lint steeped in the acid, produced a crust that adhered firmly to the wound and the adjacent part till the danger was over, its surface being painted from time to time with the acid, to guard against the penetration of septic change into its substance. Meanwhile in the midis-* tnrhed wound the portions of tissue which had been destroyed by the caustic, were replaced by living tissue formed at their expense. “That dead tissue, when protected from external influences, was so disposed of,' was a most important truth new to pathology, and it afterwards suggested the idea of the catgut ligature. The introduction of this new method in the ligature of vesels by Lord Lister, when he was Professor at the University of Glasgow, was a great surgical innovation. Before practising this new method in his wards, he experimented on the vessels of a horse and a calf, and with such success that he justified himself in using it in the human subject. “Lord Lister’s teaching and work wore characterised by the somewhat rare combination of the theoretical or deductive method with splendid powers of observation and experiment, coupled with indomitable nerserveranco in varying his procedure according to the results to be obtained. “As a lecturer, Lord Lister spoke extempore, slowly and deliberately, thinking out his argument as he went along. His language was always clear and graceful, but almost never rhetorical. To Ids students and those who came in close contact with him in Ids wprk, he gave the impression of absolute truthfulness and trustworthiness in stating his observations arid experiments. BENEFICENCE OF LISTERISM. “Tlio honours which have followed Ids course have boon conspicuous, and in one respect unprecedented in Britain. He* is the first member of the medical profession who has been raised to the peerage; ho was created a baron in 1897, having been previously made a baronet in'lß33. His observations and discoveries in the antiseptic treatment, which have often been referred to as ‘Listorism,’ arc now of world-wide fame and universal beneficence. A sentence from the congratulatory letter which was sent to him on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, by the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons reads: ‘As time passes the blessings which have followed your life’s work have been innumerable, and the knowledge that they become each year more and more manifest must, wo feel assured, bo a source of extreme _ consolation to you in your distinguished and honourable retirement.’ ”