220 



DISCOVERY 



CH. 



Lister died in February, 1912, and by his wish he was 

 laid to rest by the side of his wife in West Hampstead 

 Cemetery. An impressive funeral service was, however, 

 held at Westminster Abbey ; and at it an anthem was 

 sung composed for the funeral of Queen Caroline, in 

 1737, and chosen for the special appropriateness of the 

 words, which were : 



When the ear heard him, then it blessed him ; and when the 

 eye saw him, it gave witness of him. He delivered the poor 

 that cried ; the fatherless and him that had none to help him. 

 Kindness, meekness, and comfort were in his tongue. If there 

 was any virtue, and if there was any praise, he thought on those 

 things. His body is buried in peace, but his name liveth ever- 

 more. 



Pasteur's experiments on dogs, which led to the dis- 

 covery of a remedy for rabies, and most of the operations 

 performed by Lister and his successors, would not have 

 been possible without the use of chloroform. Anaes- 

 thesia is the handmaid of surgery ; it permitted many 

 new departures and rendered operations feasible which 

 had been undreamed of before. Pasteur had a great 

 horror of useless suffering, and always insisted upon 

 anaesthesia before undertaking the trephinings which 

 his experiments involved. It is essential that conscious 

 pain should be avoided in all such operations, whether 

 on animals or man. The anguish endured by patients 

 undergoing operations before the days of anaesthetics 

 has been vividly described by Dr. George Wilson. Dr. 

 Wilson had to undergo the protracted and painful 

 experience of having one foot removed by surgeons. 



" During the operation," he says, " in spite of the pain it 

 occasioned, my senses were preternaturally acute. I watched 

 all that the surgeons did with a fascinated intensity. Of the 

 agony it occasioned, I will say nothing. Suffering so great as 

 I underwent cannot be expressed in words, and thus fortunately 



