THE MARCH OF MEDICINE—WINTROBE 379 
This amazing performance found few imitators, for it required 
extraordinary courage on the part of both the patient and the surgeon. 
We may be proud that the problem of relieving pain was solved by 
two Americans who quite independently of each other in the early 
1840’s discovered the anesthetic powers of ether. One was Dr. Craw- 
ford W. Long, a general practitioner in a little town in Georgia. He 
first operated with ether anesthesia in 1842. He did not publicize his 
discovery, and the credit for making the use of ether known to the 
world is given to the Boston dentist, William T. G. Morton, and to the 
staff of the Massachusetts General Hospital, where the regular use of 
ether began in 1846. 
To Joseph Lister must be given the credit for initiating the conquest 
of surgical infection. In 1872, at the Bellevue Hospital in New York, 
from 40 to 60 percent of all amputations of limbs proved fatal. The 
same was true at the University of Glasgow when Lister took the post 
of professor of surgery there. Lister was impressed by Pasteur’s 
demonstration that organisms that produce fermentation and putre- 
faction are carried on particles of dust in the air. He decided to try 
to prevent infection by using on wounds a dressing containing a mate- 
rial capable of destroying micro-organisms. Using crude carbolic acid, 
he developed the first antiseptic dressing in March 1865. Two years 
later he was able to report a total of 11 cases of compound fracture 
treated by the antiseptic method, with 9 recoveries, 1 amputation, and 
1 death. Pyemia, hospital gangrene, and erysipelas disappeared. 
These were unprecedented results, as dramatic in their day as any we 
are seeing today. 
An equally important contribution was Lister’s discovery of a 
method of preparing a relatively sterile, absorbable catgut with which 
wounds can be sewed. This procedure made it possible for wounds to 
heal in the clean and straightforward way to which we are accustomed 
today. Until this time pus formation was so common that it was 
regarded as part of the healing process and was spoken of as “laudable 
pus.” 
We can now appreciate how great were Lister’s contributions to 
humanity. In his time, however, he met much opposition. His un- 
tiring investigations on ligatures were carried out in animals and the 
Anti-Vivisectionists in England made repeated attempts to prevent 
him from continuing his experiments. Furthermore, his own associ- 
ates were too stubborn to appreciate the value of his discoveries, and 
as late as 1880 in all the British Isles there were only one or two clinics 
where his methods were used. Fortunately, in Germany and subse- 
quently in this country, a number of surgeons began to apply his 
methods and to find them of the greatest importance. The German 
surgeons not only adopted Lister’s methods but they developed the 
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