746 



SURGERY. 



friendship of Wolseley prevented his dismissal. 

 In the campaign in Egypt in 1882 he did good 

 service with the cavalry, distinguishing himself 

 especially at Kassassin, and at the capture of 

 Cairo. For this he was promoted and made 

 aide-de-camp to the Queen. In the Soudan 

 he commanded the cavalry brigade under Gra- 

 distinguished himself at El-Teb, Tamai, 



STB HERBERT STEWAKT. 



and Tel-el-Kebir, for which he was knighted, 

 and participated in Gen. Low's ride through 

 the desert to Cairo. He commanded the divis- 

 ion that crossed the Bayuda Desert from Korti 

 to Metemneh for the purpose of communicat- 

 ing with and ultimately rescuing Gen. Gordon, 

 who was then shut up in Khartoum. On 

 Jan. 17, 1885, they fought a battle at Abu-Klea 

 Wells, and on the 19th another at Shebakat. 

 Here Gen. Stewart received his wound. He 

 was carried with the other wounded to Gakdul 

 Wells, where he died. He was buried, with 

 military honors, at the entrance of the valley 

 that leads to Gakdul. 



STIGMATA MAIDIS. See DRUGS, NEW. 



SURGERY. The year 1884 was not marked 

 by any special innovations in the province of 

 surgery, though the tendency was toward in- 

 creased boldness, especially in operations within 

 the abdomen. Cleanliness is now universally 

 insisted upon. There is a disposition to return 

 to the simplest form of dressings and after- 



treatment. Conservatism in regard to the 

 treatment of severe injuries is a marked feat- 

 ure of modern surgery. There is a greater 

 disposition to trust to the curative power of 

 nature; many limbs are saved that would for- 

 merly have been amputated. Peritoneal sur- 

 gery has steadily become more successful, 

 though American statistics are still less flatter- 

 ing than those of foreign surgeons. 

 The reason for this, as suggested by 

 a recent distinguished English visit- 

 or, is doubtless because the latter 

 give, their exclusive attention to this 

 special work, and hence avoid those 

 sources of infection to which the 

 general operator is exposed. 



Dressings. While the year wit- 

 nessed no essential changes in this 

 important branch of surgery, va- 

 rious modifications were introduced. 

 Lister himself, with whose name an- 

 tiseptic surgery is so closely connect- 

 ed, has made some important con- 

 cessions in regard to the details of 

 his method. In his latest written 

 contribution upon the subject, he 

 not only acknowledges that the 

 spray is not so important an element 

 as he had formerly insisted, but he 

 sums up the whole matter with these 

 words : " We do not require any sci- 

 entific theory in order to believe in 

 antiseptic treatment. You need not 

 believe in the germ-theory at all ; if 

 you are not convinced of the truth 

 of the germ- theory of putrefaction 

 and of septic agencies generally, no 

 matter whatsoever, with reference 

 to antiseptic practice, all you have 

 to believe is that there are such 

 things as putrefaction and other 

 septic agencies, that our wounds are 

 liable to them, that they are very 

 pernicious, that these things come 

 from without, and that we have the means 

 of preventing them by various chemical agen- 

 cies. This is all that we require, and I think 

 anybody that knows the present state of 

 surgical practice must admit these to be tru- 

 isms. It has sometimes been a great grief 

 to me that, because gentlemen are not con- 

 vinced of the germ-theory out-and-out, there- 

 fore they lay aside antiseptic treatment alto- 

 gether." Still later, in his address before the 

 ifedieal Society of London, Oct. 20, 1884, he 

 made this frank statement : " When, in an ad- 

 dress delivered at the opening meeting of last 

 session, I expressed myself in what some of my 

 hearers regarded as terms of overweening con- 

 fidence in antiseptic treatment, I little thought 

 that a year later I should have to tell you of 

 failures on my own part." 



Following out this idea, we find that Lister's 

 adherents, both in America and abroad, now 

 seldom use the spray, except in abdominal sur- 

 gery, while in ordinary operations they rely 



