556 Sir William Maceivcn [June 7, 



siirgeoiiKS of Northern Europe was that they bestirred themselves "to 

 go and see " the practice first-hand. Having read that a new theory 

 and practice were enunciated, they became sufficiently interested to 

 go straightway and see how the method was carried out. Thereafter 

 they returned to their homes with a precise knowledge and a truer 

 conception of the theory and practice than they otherwise could 

 have had. 



German surgeons were able, from their laboratory training, to devote 

 the necessary care and attention to the carrying out of the detail of 

 antiseptic tteatment which made its practice a success. The influence 

 of Danish and German testimony, corroborative of the value of the 

 antiseptic treatment, made itself felt, and did much to render its 

 adoption universal. 



Pyogenic Oeganisms discoveeed, 1880 ; Organisms 

 THE Cause of Disease. 



The discovery of pyogenic organisms as the cause of suppuration 

 in wounds was of great importance, as it demonstrated the correct- 

 ness of Lister's theory and gave a tangil)le basis for the practice. It 

 placed l)oth the etiology of suppuration and its treatment upon a 

 scientific basis. Empiricism was in great measure overthrown, and 

 henceforward a rational aetiology for disease and its treatment was 

 sought. Microbiology, then in its infancy, received a great impulse, 

 and fresh fields were opened from which an ever-increasing harvest 

 has been reaped. From the burning plains and pestilential swamps 

 of the Tropics, to our own slums, with their three great D's — Dirt, 

 Damp and Darkness, which we fondly harbour in our midst — disease 

 after disease has been traced to its micro-organismal cause. Those 

 diseases which remain will doubtless yield their secret to steady in- 

 vestigation, and would do so all the more readily if submitted to a 

 properly constructed investigation department under scientific control. 



Tuberculosis, which for centuries was regarded as an hereditary 

 disease, was shown to be germ-borne, common to man and to the 

 lower animals, and to be inter-communicable between them. Cancer 

 and sarcoma and the varieties included under these terms are doubt- 

 less also germ diseases, the germs of which are probably to be found 

 near our every-day life, if our eyes were open to perceive them. The 

 need of a scientific experimental investigation department under 

 scientific control is all the more apparent as the Government has at 

 last ventured to advance measures intended to mitigate one of the 

 communicable diseases — Tuberculosis. 



Yet what they do with the one iiand they undo with the other. 



For instance, in the old days the light that entered our houses 

 was taxed, and the windows became smaller ; to-day the powers that 

 be tax the air contained therein, and for every cubic foot of air 

 enclosed additional charge is made. In order to escape or to lessen 



