EDITORIALS 



From an early period of his career Lister was deeply impressed 



by the great mortality of Operations and severe injuries attended 



by external wounds, such as Compound fractures. In those days 



almost every Operation was followed by what 

 Joseph Lister , ., ■ ■, . „ t • , 



was termed surgical fever. Lister became 



acquainted with the great discovery of Pasteur, that fermentation 

 and putrefaction are due to microbes. He recognized that the 

 wound complications were due to putrefaction from the same cause 

 and grasped the surgical possibiHties. His first idea was to kill the 

 germs already admitted to wounds and then to prevent the entrance 

 of others. The first agent he selected for this purpose was phenol 

 (carbolic acid). His articies, which inaugurated the antiseptic Sys- 

 tem, were published in 1867 in the Lancet under the title: " A New 

 Method of Treating Compound Fractures, Abscesses, etc." He 

 freely applied phenol to the interior of the wounds in order to de- 

 stroy the air-borne germs, and covered the opening skin with lint 

 charged with phenol and protected by an external layer of thin 

 sheet metal. His results showed a marvelous improvement. Hos- 

 pital gangrene, pyemia and erysipelas, which had been frequent in 

 his wards, disappeared. With indefatigable industry he constantly 

 experimented to improve his technic, using in turn phenolized 

 putty, phenolized shellac, the phenol spray, perchlorid of mercury, 

 sal alembroth and double Cyanid of mercury and zinc. 



Lister's appointment as professor of clinical surgery at King's 

 College gave greater opportunities for the diffusion of his teaching, 

 which now was receiving much attention abroad, as well as at 

 home. Indeed, the antiseptic System was earlier recognized by 

 foreign than by British surgeons. The conservatism of his own 

 country proved a strong barrier, as it has always done, to reforms, 

 however great and beneficent. Some of the leading surgeons of the 

 day not only refused to adopt the antiseptic System, but violently 

 opposed it. Even a man of the eminence of Sir James Simpson 



519 



