218 



DISCOVERY 



en. 



taught by both met at first with nothing but opposition 

 or indifference. 



Fifty years ago the slightest surgical operation was 

 attended with great danger, on account of mortification 

 of the wound and blood-poisoning due to the introduction 

 of putrid matter into the body. By a long and system- 

 atic investigation of the causes of the inflammation 

 which followed injuries to living tissues, Lister was able 

 to show that the danger which formerly existed could 

 be avoided, and by so doing he founded modern surgery. 

 When he commenced his experiments, the healing of 

 injuries or wounds after an operation could not by any 

 means be confidently expected as it can at the present 

 time. It was almost impossible to avoid inflammation 

 and festering of the parts affected, and the wound- fevers 

 which usually followed were the despair of surgeons. 



Lister came to the conclusion that all the putrefactive 

 changes to which wounds were subject, and which send 

 to the grave so many patient sufferers, were due to the 

 presence of bacteria. To prevent this action, he 

 developed a system of careful disinfection of everything 

 which came into direct or indirect contact with a wound. 

 He invented also an antiseptic dressing which excluded 

 bacteria from the wound and assisted the natural 

 tendency of tissues to heal themselves. The results 

 obtained since Lister's methods were introduced in the 

 seventies of the nineteenth century are astounding in 

 their success. To-day, thanks to his careful scientific 

 work, surgeons are able to carry out the most difficult 

 operations without any fear of the terrible mortality 

 which troubled those of a past generation. Thousands 

 of people alive and happy at the present time owe their 

 lives and their relief from suffering not so much to the 

 skill of a surgeon as to the knowledge of the means 



