696 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



against the subsequent access of septic material. Thus the use of 

 the spray might be dispensed with, and no one would rejoice more 

 than myself in getting rid of that complication." The suggestion 

 thus indicated was not acted upon in surgical practice till after 

 much testing and experiment, by which Lister was led to con- 

 clude, definitely, that it was the grosser forms of septic mischief, 

 rather than microbes in the attenuated condition in which they 

 exist in the atmosphere, that were to be dreaded in surgical 

 practice. At the London Medical Congress, in 1881, he hinted 

 that it might turn out possible to disregard altogether the atmos- 

 pheric dust, but he still did not venture as yet to try this upon his 

 patients. 



At the Berlin Congress, in 1890, he brought forward what 

 he regarded as absolute demonstration of the harmlessness of 

 the atmospheric dust in surgical operations and of the sufficiency 

 of methods in which irritation of the wound by strong antiseptics 

 was avoided. 



Under the method now in use, as described by Prof. H. Tillmanns 

 in Nature's " Scientific Worthies," " operations are performed with 

 almost painfully precise sterilization of every object or instrument 

 employed, as Lister first taught us to do, while at the same time 

 we limit as far as possible the action of irritant antiseptics, such as 

 carbolic acid, and even advantageously use none at all, operating 

 with as little fluid as possible. So far as it may be necessary, the 

 fluid now employed is a sterilized solution of common salt, or else 

 sterilized water. In the place, then, of carrying out our operations 

 under the former strictly antiseptic precautions, we now operate 

 aseptically. But the fundamental idea on which Lister's antiseptic 

 method was based has remained unchanged, and will always be the 

 same. . . . The operational area on the patient is carefully disin- 

 fected in accordance with Lister's instructions, and is surrounded with 

 aseptic linen compresses sterilized in steam at from 100° to 130° C. 

 We employ exact and definite methods to free our hands from mi- 

 crobes, and the instruments are sterilized by boiling in one-per-cent 

 solution of sodium carbonate. All bandages and the outer gar- 

 ments we wear are made aseptic by prolonged exposure to steam 

 at from 100° to 130° C, in a specially constructed apparatus; and 

 so, also, in respect to all else. Steam thus provides us nowadays 

 with non-irritant bandaging materials free from germs with even 

 greater certainty than did their earliest impregnation with anti- 

 septic substances. . . . Instead of sponges we now use muslin ab- 

 sorbents sterilized by steam, and these, like every other fragment 

 of bandaging material, are burned after being used but once. In 

 short, the technics of modern surgery is based on Lister's method, 



