146 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



greater number of them swarmed with the bacteria of putrefaction, 

 the germs of which had been contracted from the dust-laden air of the 

 room. And, had the pus from my abscess been examined, my memory 

 of its appearance leads me to infer that it would have been found 

 equally swarming with these bacteria that it was their germs which 

 got into my incautiously-opened wound. They were the subtile work- 

 ers that burrowed down my shin, dug the abscess in my instep, and 

 produced effects which might well have proved fatal to me. 



And here we come directly face to face with the labors of a man 

 who has established for himself an imperishable reputation in relation 

 to this subject, who combines the penetration of the true theorist with 

 the skill and conscientiousness of the true experimenter, and whose 

 practice is one continued demonstration of the theory that the putre- 

 faction of wounds is to be averted by the destruction of the germs 

 of bacteria. Not only from his own reports of his cases, but from 

 the reports of eminent men who have visited his hospital, and from 

 the opinions expressed to me by Continental surgeons, do I gather 

 that one of the greatest steps ever made in the art of surgery was 

 the introduction of the antiseptic system of treatment, practised first 

 in Glasgow and now in Edinburgh, by Prof. Lister. 



The interest of this subject does not slacken as we proceed. We 

 began with the cherry-cask and beer-vat ; we end with the body of 

 man. There are persons born with the power of interpreting natural 

 facts, as there ai'e others smitten with everlasting incompetence in 

 regard to such interpretation. To the former class in an eminent 

 degree belonged the celebrated philosopher Robert Boyle, whose 

 words in relation to this subject have in them the forecast of prophecy. 

 "And let me add," writes Boyle in his "Essay on the Pathological 

 Part of Physik," " that he that thoroughly understands the nature of 

 ferments and fermentations shall probably be much better able than 

 he that ignores them to give a fair account of divers phenomena of 

 several diseases (as well fevers as others) which will perhaps be never 

 properly understood without an insight into the doctrine of fermen- 

 tations." 



Two hundred years have passed since these pregnant words were 

 written, and it is only in this our day that men are beginning to fully 

 realize their truth. In the domain of surgery the justice of Boyle's 

 surmise has been most strictly demonstrated. Demonstration is in- 

 deed the only word wdiich fitly characterizes the evidence brought 

 forward by Prof. Lister. You will grasp in a moment his leading 

 idea. Take the extracted juice of beef or mutton, so prepared as to 

 be perfectly transparent, and entirely free from the living germs of 

 bacteria. Into the clear liquid let fall the tiniest drop of an infusion 

 charged with the bacteria of putrefaction. Twenty-four hours subse- 

 quently the clear extract will be found muddy throughout, the tur- 

 bidity being due to swarms of bacteria generated by the drop with 



