292 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



shin, dug the abscess in my instep, and produced effects 

 which might easily have proved fatal. 



This apparent digression brings us face to face with the 

 labors of a man who combines the penetration of the true 

 theorist with the skill and conscientiousness of the true ex- 

 perimenter, and whose practice is one continued demon- 

 stration of the theory that the putrefaction of wounds is 

 to be averted by the destruction of the germs of bacteria. 

 Not only from his own reports of his cases, but from the 

 reports of eminent men who have visited his hospital, and 

 from the opinions expressed to me by continental surgeons, 

 do I gather that one of the greatest steps ever made in the 

 art of surgery was the introduction of the antiseptic sys- 

 tem of treatment, introduced by Professor Lister. 



The interest of this subject does not slacken as we 

 proceed. We began with the cherry-cask and beer- vat; 

 we end with the body of man. There are persons born 

 with the power of interpreting natural facts, as there are 

 others smitten with everlasting incompetence in regard to 

 such interpretation. To the former class in an eminent 

 degree belonged the illustrious philosopher Eobert Boyle, 

 whose words in relation to this subject have in them the 

 forecast of prophecy. "And let me add," writes Boyle 

 in his "Essay on the Pathological Part of Physik," "that 

 he that thoroughly understands the nature of ferments 

 and fermentations shall probably be much better able than 

 he that ignores them, to give a fair account of divers 

 phenomena of several diseases (as well fevers as others), 

 which will perhaps be never properly understood without 

 an insight into the doctrine of fermentations." 



Two hundred years have passed since these pregnant 

 words were written, and it is only in this our day that 



