I9I2] Editoriais 521 



" I flatter myself that you may read vvith some interest what I 

 have written on the organisrns which you were the first to describe 

 in your works. I do not know whether the records of British sur- 

 gery ever meet your eye. If so, you will have seen, from time to 

 time, notices of the antiseptic System of treatment, which I have 

 been laboring at for the last nine yearsto bring toperfection. Allow 

 me to take this opportunity to tender you my most cordial thanks 

 for having by your brilliant researches, demonstrated to me the 

 truth of the germ theory of putrefaction and thus furnished me with 

 the principle upon which alone the antiseptic System can be carried 

 out." List er to Fast cur. 



On the occasion of the great celebration in honor of Pasteur in 

 1892, there occurred a memorable incident which, we are told, 

 softened the hearts of all: As Lister finished his congratulatory 

 address on behalf of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, 

 Pasteur rose and embraced him, and, writes Pasteur's biographer, 

 "the sight of these two men gave the impression of a brotherhood 

 of science laboring to diminish the sorrows of humanity." [Journal 

 of the American Medical Association, 1912, Iviii, p. 486; Feh. //.] 



His brow spreads large and placid, and his eye 



Is deep and bright, with steady looks that still. 



Soft lines of tranquil thought his face fulfil — 



His face at once benign and proud and shy. 



If envy scout, if ignorance deny, 



His faultless patience, his unyielding will, 



Beautiful gentleness and splendid skill, 



Innumerable gratitudes reply. 



His wise, rare smile is sweet with certainties, 



And seems in all his patients to compel 



Such love and faith as failure cannot quell. 



We hold him for another Herakles, 



Battling with custom, prejudice, disease, 



As once the son of Zeus with Death and Hell. Henley. 



It is incorrect to speak of modern surgical practice as opposed 

 to Lister's teaching. "Aseptic surgery is a direct development of 



