522 Joseph Lister [Mar. 



antiseptic siirgery : it represents simply a new and improved way of 

 applying the same principles." Lister saw clearly what he was 

 about. " We may dispense entirely with Irrigation," he said, 

 "whether in the form of the spray, which was a kind of irrigation, 

 or in any other; in fact, our Operations may be performed with just 

 the same simpHcity as in former years. What we have to attend to 

 is to prevent the entrance into our wounds, during Operations, of 

 the grosser forms of septic mischief, such, for instance, as exist 

 in impure sponges or dirty instruments, or in any unclean material 

 upon our hands or on the skin of the patient." It was a question of 

 means. New and better means than the wholesale appHcation of 

 carboHc acid were ultimately devised, but the end in view is still 

 the same.^ 



The Portrait of Lister, at the front of this issue (page 371), is 

 presented by courtesy of American Medicine, having first appeared in 

 the March issue of that valuable monthly. We are greatly indebted 

 to American Medicine for permission to reproduce the portrait and 

 for the use of the plate for that purpose. 



Waldemar Koch was highly esteemed by all who knew him.^ 



His personal friends were legion, his professional admirers were a 



multitude. Halliburton said, several years ago, that Koch was one 



of the few biological chemists who had had the 

 Waldemar Koch , , , , - , . , 



courage to undertake the study of bram chem- 



istry.^ Koch's researches in recent years were rapidly carrying him 



toward the Solution of some of the most perplexing problems in 



neurochemistry and the many results of his work in this field (page 



374) will exercise a continuing constructive influence on the future 



investigations of the chemistry of the nervous System. A month 



before his death, Koch was elected Secretary of the Section of 



Physiology and Experimental Medicine (K) of the American Asso- 



* " In the natural process of evolution, asepsis later succeeded antisepsis, and 

 regarding this matter Championniere, the father of asepsis, stated that " aseptic 

 surgery is as much an issue of the discovery of Lister as is true antiseptic 

 surgery." Journal of the American Medical Association, 1912, Iviii, p. 499. 



^ See page 372. 



' Halliburton : Oliver-Sharpey Lectures, British Medical Journal, 1907 

 (May 4). 



