vm CONQUEST OF DISEASE 217 



effects. If there were reason for boasting in the sphere 

 of medical science, the array of brilliant discoveries which 

 has brought about this result might be quoted with 

 pride as conquests for humanity, won by much toil in 

 the face of great difficulties. 



Pasteur was the first to realise the significance of 

 micro-organisms in the economy of Nature ; and it was 

 his work which directly inspired Lord Lister to introduce 

 those antiseptic methods in surgery which have made 

 thousands of sufferers bless his name. By his researches 

 on brewing, Pasteur showed that living organisms- 

 bacteria unseen to the naked eye, convert the brewer's 

 wort into ale, and that germs which may afterwards be 

 introduced cause the beverage to become sour or bad. 

 Lister saw that germs introduced into wounds in human 

 flesh might be similarly responsible for the fevers 

 and death which usually followed surgical operations 

 in his early days ; and he took measures to prevent 

 their entrance, and thus permit Nature to do her work 

 of healing under favourable conditions. The brewer 

 may himself introduce the cause of souring into the 

 beverage he desires to keep pure ; and the surgeon may 

 likewise infect the patient while endeavouring to relieve 

 him. 



Recognition of the application to surgery of Pasteur's 

 investigations on fermentation and putrefaction induced 

 Lister, in 1865, to make use of antiseptics in the treatment 

 of compound fractures an operation previously attended 

 with the gravest risk, but now, thanks to Pasteur and 

 Lister, performed without any danger of introducing 

 the germs which caused the complications that were the 

 despair of surgeons. Well has it been said that Pasteur 

 and Lister " formed a brotherhood of science labouring 

 to diminish the sorrows of humanity " ; yet the principles 



