LISTERISM.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13294, 24 May 1907, Page 3

LISTERISM.

A GREAT DISCOVERY. On April sth Lord Lister, the Grand Old Man of surgery, celebrated his bisi birthday. His name is associated with one of the greatest discoveries in medical science. In the early part of the nineteenth century, says Ernest Kussell, in the '* Laily Chronicle" surgery was of the roughest kind, and was little bttter than common butchering. In the wars with Napoleon, when amputation had been effected on board our wooden ships, the stumps of the poor seamen were often dipped in tar to prevent mortification —a rou<rh-and-ready form of Listerisrn. The mortality was naturally terribly high, and so remained until Lcrd Lister's discoveries. In the 40's a notable advance was made, for the introduction of ether and chloroform into surgical practice not only removed much of the dread of physical pain 'which operations involved, but emboldened surgeons to strike out in new directions. But, however skilfully the operation was performed, there was always a dread fear that inflammation would intervene, and rob the surgeon of the fruits of his labours and the patient of his life. Lister's kindly heart was .sickened by what he saw around him at Glasgow and elsewhere. Pyaemmia, septicaemia, ery.ipela=-, and gangrene were then the scourge f.f the hospitals, although to-day they are of rare occurrence. The capacity for taking pains was once aga, : .n manifested. Lister insisted that surgeons should carefully wash their hands bjfore undertaking operations, and the most scrupulous cleanliness was everywhere observed. He was laughed at as- " being a harmless crank, but he was on the right track. Up to this time it was thought that putrefaction v.-.is due to the influence of the oxygen in the air, and that only by its exclusion, a practical impossibility, could inflammation of a wound be prevented. But when Pasteur showed that- putrefaction and all its attendant ills was set up by the action of minute organisms in ilie air, in dust, and in dirt. Li-ter jumped to the correct conclusion that the tiu. j remedy was not to exclude the air, but to exclude, by means of germicide subtanees, the microbes by which fermentative processes are induced, or to eradicate them from wounds to which they had gained access. Experiments were first tried by Lister on compound fractures, the mortality in regard tn which had been very high. He washed iht" wound with a weak solution of embolic acid, then lirtl" known outside the lal.alory. which he had read was a. satisfactory" germicide. He also took care that the "skin around the wounds was slmUiarlv laved with the solution, and that the hands and instruments of operators went through -a like process. How were the experiments in common knowledge. "I h*d the. joy." said T)r. I.irter, describing his discovery many vears afterwards, "of seeing these formidable injuries following the same safe and

tranquil course as simple fractures dn which the skin remains unbroken." Greatreason indeed had Dr. Lister, and not only he but the world beyond the hospital, for joy at his discovery. Whereas in 1864, just before the advent of the antiseptic process, the. death-rate in Lister's wards at .Glasgow had been no less than 45 per cent. in serious operations; in 1866. after th eeporh-making experiments, it had fallen to 15 per cent. But even with'this magnificent result the patient, painstaking Lister was not satisfied. He- devised improved dressings, and invented a catgut ligature which, as it was capable of assimilation by the circulatory system, allowed the wound to be closed at once. This also bore due reward, and between 1871-7, when the system had. been more fully developed, „the death-rate had fallen to 12 per cent. In those days Engli.h surgeons were a somewhat conservative, race, and a- long time elapsed before they fully realised the importance of the antiseptic process. Germany, on the contrary, hailed Lister's discovery with enthusia-m. And that well thej- might the folio-wing extract from the fascinating address delivered by Lord Lister at the British Association meetings at Liverpool in 1896 is ample proof: " In. the greeat Allgemeines Kfankenbaus of Munich, hospital gangrene had become more and more, rife from year to year, tall at length the frightful condition was reached that 80 per cent, of all the wounds became affected by it. The institution seeemed to have become hopelessly infected, and the city authorities were contemplating its demolition and reconstruction. Under these circumstances, Professor Von Nussbaum dispatched his chief assistant, Dr. Liridpainter, to Edinburgh, where I at that time occupied the chair of clinical surgery, to learn the details of the antiseptic system, as l we then practised, it. He remained until he had entirely .mastered them, and after his return all the cases were on a certain day dressed on our plan. From that day forward not a, single case of hospital oangrene occurred in the Krankeerhai'3. The fearful disease pyemia likewise. disappeared, and erysipelas soon followed its example." Small wonder is it that honours have fallen upon the subject of this sketch " thieli as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks in Vallombrosa." Universities in all parts of the world have showered their degrees upon him, and lie is a member of more learned societies than he could well remember. And now to celebrate bis eighty-first birthday, an international comroitte" is to be responsible for the collection of all his scientific papers, and to secure their publication, together with a biography.