26 DEVELOPMENT OF BACTERIOLOGY 



Other Work of Pasteur. This was only a part of the work of this 

 great man, for in 1885 he announced a cure for hydrophobia. Prior 

 to this time the disease developed in at least 16 per cent, of the 

 individuals bitten by mad dogs, and of this 16 per cent., 100 per cent, 

 died. Since Pasteur's discovery the number of deaths from this 

 cause has been reduced almost to zero. The profound importance 

 of his work has been well summarized by Lord Lister: " Truly there 

 does not exist in the entire world any individual to whom the medical 

 science owes more than they do to you. Your researches on fermen- 

 tation have thrown a powerful beam which lightened the baleful 

 darkness of surgery and has transformed the treatment of wounds 

 from a matter of uncertain and too often disastrous empiricisms 

 into a scientific art of sure beneficence. Thanks to you, surgery has 

 undergone a complete revolution which has deprived it of its terrors 

 and has extended almost without limit its efficacious powers." 



And Tyndall writes: "We have been scourged by miserable 

 throngs, attacked from impenetrable ambuscades, and it is only 

 today that the light of science is being let in upon the murderous 

 dominion of foes." 



Other Plagues Conquered. In the realm of medicine one discovery 

 after another has followed in rapid succession during the last few 

 years, until today diphtheria instead of having a death-rate of over 

 30 per cent, has one of less than 3. Typhoid fever is all but con- 

 quered. Asiatic cholera and the yellow fever have been nearly 

 wiped from the face of the earth, thus making possible the building 

 of the Panama Canal. 



Lister. Thanks to the wonderful work of Lord Lister we no longer 

 have that terrible suppuration, which before his time followed even 

 slight wounds. At the close of the nineteenth century it was asserted 

 that "Listerism" had saved more lives than had been sacrificed by 

 all the wars of the nineteenth century. Although continually 

 brought in contact with suffering and misery, this truly great man 

 did not lose his tender-hearted nature and love of children, as is 

 shown by the following story related by one of Lister's students. 



"One day when Lister was visiting his wards in the Glasgow 

 Royal Infirmary, there was a little girl whose elbow-joint had been 

 excised, and this had to be dressed daily. Lister undertook this 

 dressing himself. The little creature bore the pain without com- 

 plaint, and when finished she suddenly produced from under the 

 clothes a dilapidated doll, one leg of which had burst, allowing the 

 sawdust to escape. She handed the doll to Lister, who gravely 

 examined it; then asking for a needle and thread, he sat down and 

 stitched the rent, and then returned the doll to its gratified owner." 



Yellow Fever. The investigators in some of these fields have gone 

 into it not only with a knowledge of the fact that failure may be 

 their lot, but they even risked their lives in the work, as is shown 



