1915] War Notes 443 



"Those who fail to recall the historical development of the 

 modern surgical technic are sometimes wont to assume that because 

 certain current aseptic procedures have entirely superseded the anti- 

 septic devices introduced by Lister, the advantages of his precautions 

 are no longer essential. It must be remembered, however, that anti- 

 septic and aseptic are nothing other than two ways of arriving at one 

 result. In the words of Sir William Osler: *It is the difference be- 

 tween tweedledum and tweedledee. They are both applications of 

 the same principle.' We cannot summarize the Situation better than 

 by again quoting Paget : ' It is true,' he writes, ' that Lister was 

 more afraid of the powers of the air, half a Century ago, than sur- 

 geons are now; it is true that his use of a phenol spray, to sterilize 

 the air around the wound, has been given up; but the law of all 

 Operations remains today that law which was revealed to Lister in 

 1865, in the hght of Pasteur's work on putrefaction. From the very 

 first, antiseptic surgery had in itself the making of aseptic surgery.' 



"The principles defended and applied by Lister find applications 



in everyday lif e at the hands of the layman ; their value is f urther 



attested in the prominence which they play in the modern military 



regime, The soldier on the European battlefield has been taught to 



apply an antiseptic dressing promptly to the wound he receives in 



action, and the enlightened teachings of Lister follow him through 



all the subsequent stages of his treatment to recovery. After a lapse 



of 50 years we may well pause to recall that Lister was instrumental 



in saving more lives than the armies of the greatest general or poten- 



tate have destroyed. Let us mark the anniversary on our medical 



calendar and pay a tribute to the masterful genius of Lister, * a man 



serene through controversy, a spirit pf invincible patience and of 



radiant purity.'" Editorial: Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, 1915, Ixv, 



p. 171. 



II. WAR NOTES 



Necrology. — Dr. Chaillou, head of the anti-rabies dep't of the 

 Pasteur Inst. 



G. C. M. Mathison, known for his work on the physiol. of 

 respiration. 



Max Rappart, assis, in ehem. to Fischer, Univ. of Berlin. 



E. Rhode, instr. in the physiol. and pharmacol. of the heart, 



