238 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



i ( 



My dear Sir — allow me to beg your acceptance of a pam. 

 phlet, which I send by the same post, containing an account 

 of some investigations into the subject which you have done 

 so much to elucidate, the germ theory of fermentative changes. 

 I flatter myself that you may read with some interest 

 what I have written on the organism which you were the first 

 to describe in your Memoir e sur la fermentation appelee 

 lactique. 



^'I do not know whether the records of British Surgery 

 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 labouring for the last nine years to bring to per- 

 fection. 



*' Allow me to take this opportunity to tender you my most 

 cordial thanks for having, by your brilliant researches, de- 

 monstrated 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. Should you at any 

 time visit Edinburgh, it would, I believe, give you sincere 

 gratification to see at our hospital how largely mankind is being 

 benefited by your labours. 



*'I need hardly add that it would afford me the highest 

 gratification to show you how greatly surgery is indebted to 

 you. 



** Forgive the freedom with which a common love of science 

 inspires me, and 



** Believe me, with profound respect, 



** Yours very sincerely, 



'* Joseph Lister." 



In Lister *s wards, the instruments, sponges and other 

 articles used for dressings were first of all purified in a strong 

 solution of carbolic acid. The same precautions were taken 

 for the hands of the surgeon and of his assistants. During the 

 whole course of each operation, a vaporizer of carbolic solution 

 created around the wound an antiseptic atmosphere; after it 

 was over, the wound was again washed with the carbolic 

 solution. Special articles were used for dressing: a sort 

 of gauze, similar to tarlatan and impregnated with a mixture 

 of resin, paraffin and carbolic, maintained an antiseptic atmo- 

 sphere around the wound. Such was — in its main lines-^ 

 Lister's method. 



