176 CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE 



gery in 1875, Mr. Maunder said with a fine, but, as the 

 event showed, a too precipitate sarcasm: 



Mr. Lister expects to prevent traumatic fever and 

 . . . suppuration. 



Timothy Holmes, while professing to have used anti- 

 septics "for some years," declared his disbelief in Mr. 

 Lister's theory with regard to "germs." The Lancet's 

 editorial on the debate said it was "evident that few of 

 the speakers either place faith in Lister's theory or carry 

 out his practice in full." 



After eight years in Edinburgh Lister was chosen pro- 

 fessor of surgery in King's College, London, in 1877. 

 This was the last stand of his opponents. The British 

 Medical Journal, however, heartily urged the appoint- 

 ment of "the great surgeon of Edinburgh." 



October i, Lister gave his first lecture. He took as his 

 subject "Bacteriology," though not using that title for, 

 as Stewart said, "as yet the science had not a name." 9 



Stewart 10 gives a vivid account of the dreary days dur- 

 ing which he and the other assistants whom Lister had 

 brought with him from Edinburgh wandered in the wards 

 of other hospitals "heavy with the odor of suppuration" 

 while Lister's own small wards were filled with empty 

 beds. Instead of the Edinburgh crowds of "500 eager 

 listeners" their "hearts were chilled by the listless air of 

 the 12 or 20 students who lounged into lecture at King's" 

 only 12 or 20 students! 



But a month later the tide turned. 11 A case of frac- 

 tured patella was admitted and in violation of all surgical 

 precedent, for in that septic era to open a knee-joint meant 

 too often the loss of limb T even of life, Lister boldly 



9 The earliest instance of the use of the word "bacteriology" 

 I have found is a quotation dated 1884 in the Oxford Dictionary. 



10 Wrench, p. 274 et seq. 



11 Wrench, p. 278 et seq. 



