189S.] MICROSCOPICAL JOUKNAL. 41 



Iiifliienee of the Study of Bacteriology in the Development 

 of Aseptic Surgery in the Hospitals of Paris in 1802. 



By ROBERT REYBURN, A. M. , M. D., 



Professor of Physiology and Clinical Surgery, Medical Depailmeut, 

 Hoxvard University, ' 



WASHINGTON, DT O. 



Having during the past six years made three visits to Great 

 Britain and thecontinent of Europe — viz., in iSS6, iS9oand 1S93 — 

 I have studied with much care and interest the progress and 

 development of aseptic surgery in these countries. During the 

 summer of I S92 I paid special attention to what I saw of the 

 surgery of London, Berlin, and Paris. The present paper will 

 treat only of aseptic surgery as I saw it in the hospitals of 

 Paris in 1S92. The histoiy of the influence of bacteriological 

 studies in the development of aseptic surger}' is one of the 

 most interesting and important of the modern discoveries in the 

 science of medicine. The wildest dreams of our imagination 

 could never have foretold the momentous consequences that 

 would result from the discovery and investigations of the Bac- 

 teria and other minute micro-organisms. It is a striking illus- 

 tration of the fact that we often do not, and cannot, appreciate 

 how far-reaching and important a scientific discovery may be, 

 even when it seems to have no practical use or benefit at the 

 time. To the great Professor Pasteur's labors, chiefly, we owe 

 the foundation upon which antiseptic and aseptic surgery have 

 been built. He demonstrated that the processes of fermentation 

 and putrefaction are entirely due to the presence and action of 

 these microscopical germs, and if they are absent these changes 

 will never take place. This was followed b}' the labors of Prof. 

 Tyndall, of England, who proved conclusively that if we would 

 completely exclude the living germs or bacteria of the air from 

 infusions of animal or vegetable matter they could be kept 

 indefinitely. 



Infusions such as beef tea, mutton or chicken broth, and infu- 

 sions of hay and other vegetable structures may be kept for 

 years if, after boiling to sterilize or kill the living germs con- 

 tained in them, they were hermetically sealed to exclude the air 

 which contains the germs. He found also if the mouths of the 

 vessels containing these infusions were plugged up with aseptic 

 cotton, to filter out the germs as the air passed in and out, that 

 these infusions could be preserved indefinitely. 



To Prof. Lister we owe the grand idea of excluding the bac- 

 teria and other germs from w'ounds, and thus creating the then 

 new science of antiseptic surgery. It is perfectly true that 

 aseptic surgery as now practised in this country and in Europe 

 is very different, and far superior in efficacy and simplicity, from 

 the cumbrous procedures and dressings devised and practised by 

 the father of antiseptic surgery ; nevertheless we must never 



