BEFORE AND AFTER LISTER i;'5 



variably and solely from its own specific kind of germ. 

 Whether carbolic acid or any other germicide was the 

 best was a mere matter of detail and not of principle. 



In commenting on this discussion in which one promi- 

 nent speaker is said to have asserted that Listerism "is 

 now dead" a remark I do not find in the Transactions 

 The Lancet, 6 a belated, but then, and ever since, a real 

 convert, truly said : 



Surely it is too late in the day to contest the truth 

 of the germ theory. 



Yet even a year later (1883) at the American Surgical 

 Association while B. A. Watson, of Jersey City, fully 

 accepted Listerism, other prominent surgeons of Phila- 

 delphia, New York, New Orleans, Mobile, and other cities 

 even declared in the discussion that no surgeon in their 

 cities or states used the method. McGraw, of Detroit; 

 Dawson, of Cincinnati ; Campbell, of Georgia ; Prince, of 

 Illinois, were "doubting Thomases," while Kinloch, of 

 Charleston, and Nancrede, then of Philadelphia, advo- 

 cated it. 



But if its progress was obstructed in the United States, 

 its foes in Great Britain were even more strenuous and 

 for a season more successful. 



In spite of the striking results in Glasgow and in 

 Edinburgh Lister was looked at askance as "unortho- 

 dox." 



In 1875 The Lancet 7 had said 



there is less antiseptic surgery practised in the metro- 

 politan hospitals than ever there was. 



At the Clinical Society 8 in a debate on antiseptic sur- 



6 July 1, 1882, p. 1088. 



7 October 16, 1875, p. 565. 



s Lancet, October 30, 1875, p. 628. 



