xx INTRODUCTION 
on the disappearance of tetanus from his wards, as if that also were a disease 
due to bacteria. 
Another subject on which he soon began to speculate was the protective 
arrangements of the body. He succeeded in preserving urine and milk from 
alteration without subjecting them to any preliminary treatment by boiling or 
otherwise, thus showing that bacteria did not penetrate. along healthy canals, 
such as milk-ducts. This he attributed to the destructive action of the healthy 
living organism on the bacteria, and he pointed out that in wounds also it was 
capable, to a certain extent, of disposing of micro-organisms. Although Lister 
did not do any experimental bacteriological work on animals, there is no doubt 
that the remarkable results obtained by his methods of wound treatment, and 
the energy and insight with which he laid stress on bacteria as the cause of the 
grave troubles following wounds, had a most important influence on others, 
leading them to the study of the pathogenic effects of bacteria, and thus served 
to stimulate the rapid development of the science of bacteriology. 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANTISEPTIC SYStEi- 
We have already traced matters up to Lister’s first application of his views 
to a case of compound fracture. That compound fractures should have been the 
form of injury selected by Lister as likely to afford the most suitable test of his 
hypothesis is not difficult to understand when it is remembered how great was 
the contrast in those days between the course followed respectively by simple 
and compound fractures. The latter were indeed the most fatal of all surgical 
injuries, and accounted for a large proportion of the cases of pyaemia which 
were of such frequent occurrence in all hospitals. 
The object aimed at being the prevention of the putrefaction in the wound 
brought about by organisms introduced either at the time of the accident or 
subsequently during the course of the treatment, means were taken to obviate 
both dangers. The first indication was fulfilled by introducing into the wound 
a pledget of calico or lint held in a pair of forceps and saturated with undiluted 
crude carbolic acid; with this all the interstices of the wound were thoroughly 
swabbed out. The second indication was met by placing over the wound, and over- 
lapping it in all directions, for about half an inch, a double layer of lint saturated 
in the same material. This lint was covered bya piece of thin block-tin or sheet- 
* In this section the history of the evolution of wound treatment which Sir Hector Cameron has given 
in his James Watson Lectures before the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow has been largely 
drawn upon, and to that volume readers who desire a fuller guide to Part III of these collected papers 
are referred (Lord Lister and the Evolution of Wound Treatment during the last Forty Years. Glasgow. 
J. MacLehose & Sons. 1907. Post 8vo, pp. 96). See also vol ii. pp. 349, 365. 
