520 Joseph Lister [Mar. 



wrote a lengthy article to prove — what was already admitted — 

 that Lister was not the first to use phenol and that his methods 

 were not original. Sir William Savoury, the most elo-juent surgeon 

 of the day, who enjoyed the unprecedented distinction of being 

 President of the Royal College of Surgeons for five years in succes- 

 sion, threw ridicule on the antiseptic System. Lawson Tait, the 

 greatest and most original gynecologist of the day, adopted the 

 same attitude. But, like Darwin, Lister never descended to con- 

 troversy; he was too busy with research. So bitter was some of 

 the Opposition to him in high places that, incredible as it may seem, 

 the Royal College of Surgeons never honored itself (for that is the 

 way to put it) by appointing him president. It was said of him in 

 1900 that he had saved more lives than had been destroyed in all 

 the wars of the Century. Proposing his health at a dinner of the 

 Royal Society, Mr. Bayard, the American ambassador, said, " My 

 lord, it is not a profession, it is not a nation, it is humanity itself 

 which Salutes you." 



Lister made one discovery which, even apart from the anti- 

 septic System, would entitle him to enduring fame — the absorbable 

 catgut ligature. He found that silk ligatures were a source of 

 trouble in his treatment of wounds because of the Irritation and 

 suppuration which sometimes followed. He experimented by tying 

 the arteries of dogs and calves with catgut and found that it under- 

 went complete absorption without causing suppuration. He applied 

 the result to man and was able to announce that surgeons "may 

 now tie an arterial trunk in its continuity close to a large brauch, 

 secured alike against secondary hemorrhage and deep-seated sup- 

 puration." He subsequently evolved the chromicized catgut liga- 

 ture. He made many other important contributions to surgical 

 knowledge which have been overshadowed by his great discovery. 



As a man. Lister was singularly modest and unassuming, and 

 his solicitude and gentleness with patients were almost feminine. 

 It is related of him that when speaking to the great Austrian sur- 

 geon, Billroth, who was skeptical about the antiseptic System, he 

 simply said, "If you tried it I am sure you would be pleased with 

 it." [Jotirnal of the American Medical Association, Iviii, p. 645; 

 March 2.] 



