THE BIOLOGY OF TO-MORROW 



operation, Sir Joseph Lister (1827-1912) studied the work 

 of Pasteur. Up to this time pus was always considered the 

 necessary accompaniment of all wounds. Lister decided that 

 germs must enter the wound from the air, from surgical instru- 

 ments, or from other 

 outside agencies. 

 Thereafter, when oper- 

 ating, he used what he 

 called antiseptics to 

 kill the germs. He at- 

 tempted to destroy the 

 germs in the air by 

 spraying the air of the 

 operating room with a 

 carbolic acid solution. 

 He then protected the 

 wound as much as 



possible from contact 



An old print shows that headache was treated by removing 

 a portion of the skull. 



with the air. All his instruments were subjected to the most 

 careful antiseptic treatments. He taught his principles of anti- 

 septic surgery to the surgeons of France. The Franco-German 

 War broke out in 1870. It occurred to no one in France, in the 

 first battles, to apply the new method of antiseptic surgery. In 

 consequence, hundreds and thousands of wounded soldiers suc- 

 cumbed to gangrene and septicaemia, types of blood poisoning. 

 Then doctors all over the world adopted antiseptic surgery. In- 

 fections which formerly followed many operations practically 

 disappeared. Before Lister's time 70 per cent of all compound 

 fractures resulted in death, and about 50 per cent of all major 

 operations were fatal. After Lister's antiseptic methods were in- 

 troduced these percentages were greatly reduced. 



What of to-day ? The most modern method of surgery is aseptic 

 surgery. Germs are controlled by killing them with dry heat 



