1912] on Lord Lister. 547 



Lister's Early Days. 

 His Father, Joseph Jackson Lister. 



Lister was blessed in his earlier days by excellent environment, 

 well suited to one who was al)out to follow a scientific career. 



His father, Joseph Jackson Lister, was a man of outstanding 

 scientitic merit. He left school at 14 years of age, to assist his parent 

 at the wine trade, in London, and though for many years closely tied 

 down to business, he yet contrived, by early rising and otherwise, to 

 gain free hours in which to supplement the education received at 

 school, which, though sound, was insufficient for his needs. He was 

 thus, in many respects, a self-taught man. He possessed extreme 

 accuracy of thought, and was a most methodical worker, skilful with 

 brush and pencil. As a microscopist he was the first to solve the 

 problem of the achromatic lens, whilst many observations on 

 zoophytes and ascidians were made by him — a paper on the former 

 appearing in the " Philosophical Transactions." 



Here, then, w'as a man of grit, who left school at 14 years of age 

 to enter business in London, but who, by dint of his own exertion, 

 found means to extend his scanty education, devoting what time he 

 could to scientific pursuits with accuracy of thought and methodical 

 work. Had it been in one's power to choose a father for Lister, 

 one could not have chosen a man better suited to the purpose. 



His Teachers and their Influence. 



The influence of Sharpey upon young Lister was great. At 

 University College he was guided by Sharpey to undertake im- 

 portant researches, which were continued by Lister after he had 

 left liondon. Papers were written by him upon numerous physio- 

 logical and histological subjects — such as " The Contractile Tissue 

 of the Lis," " An Inquiry regarding the Parts of the Nervous 

 System which regulate the Contractions of the Arteries," " On the 

 Cutaneous Pigmentary System of the Frog," " On the Coagulation 

 of the Blood," " On the Early Stages of Inflammation," etc. There 

 also (Iraham aided him in the study of chemistry, and furnished 

 his mind with a sound knowledge of its principles. In Edinburgh 

 he studied under Syme, and became a great admirer of Syme's 

 intellect and judgment, as well as of his skill as an operator. This 

 intimacy ripened and lasted throughout the remainder of Syme's life. 



All these men were the best he could have been educated under 

 and associated with. The knowledge and experience gained from 

 them admirably equipped him for the life of research which he was 

 about to enter. 



It is ol»viously impossible here to deal with all the periods of 

 Lister's life, and therefore it has been deemed expedient to select 



Vol. XX. (No 106) 2 o 



