1873— 187T 23T 



ceived the idea of cotton-wool dressings, and I had the satis- 

 faction of seeing my anticipations realized.'^ 



After arresting the bleeding, ligaturing the blood vessels 

 and carefully washing the wound with carbolic solution or 

 camphorated alcohol, Alphonse Guerin applied thin layers of 

 cotton wool, over which he placed thicker masses of the same, 

 binding the whole with strong bandages of new linen. This 

 dressing looked like a voluminous parcel and did not require 

 to be removed for about twenty days. This was done at 

 the St. Louis Hospital to the wounded of the Commune from 

 March till June, 1871. Other surgeons learnt with amaze- 

 ment that, out of thirty-four patients treated in that way, 

 nineteen had survived operation. Dr. Reclus, who could not 

 bring himself to believe it, said: "We had grown to look 

 upon purulent infection as upon an inevitable and necessary 

 disease, an almost Divinely instituted consequence of any 

 important operation.^' 



There is a much greater danger than that of atmospheric 

 germs, that of the contagium germ, of which the surgeon's 

 hands; sponges and tools are the receptacle, if minute and 

 infinite precautions are not taken against it. Such precau- 

 tions were not even thought of in those days; charpie, odious 

 charpie, was left lying about on hospital and ambulance 

 tables, in contact with dirty vessels. It had, therefore, been 

 sufficient to institute careful washing of the wounds, and es- 

 pecially to reduce the frequency of dressings, and so diminish 

 the chances of infection to obtain — thanks to a reform inspired 

 by Pasteur's labours — this precious and unexpected remedy 

 to fatalities subsequent to operations. In 1873, Alphonse 

 Guerin, now a surgeon at the Hotel Dieu, submitted to Pasteur 

 all the facts which had taken place at the hospital St. Louis 

 where surgery was more '^active," he said, than at the 

 Hotel Dieu; he asked him to come and see his cotton-wool 

 dressings, and Pasteur gladly hastened to accept the invita- 

 tion. It was with much pleasure that Pasteur entered upon 

 this new period of visits to hospitals and practical discussions 

 with his colleagues of the Academic de Medecine. His joy 

 at the thought that he had been the means of awakening in 

 other minds ideas likely to lead to the good of humanity was 

 increased by the following letter from Lister, dated fron» 

 Edinburgh, February 13, 1874, which is here reproduced h 

 the original — • 



