vi PREFACE 
addresses themselves by a brief introduction giving some account of the state 
of surgery at the date when Lord Lister began his work, indicating the growth 
of the principle by which he was guided, and tracing the early stages of its 
application to practical surgery. Without some such preliminary statement, 
those unacquainted with the position of surgery, and the conditions prevalent 
in surgical wards in the middle of the nineteenth century, may fail adequately 
to understand the difficulty and complexity of the problem as it presented 
itself to him, and the brilliancy of the long chain of reasoning and experiment 
by which he was led to its triumphant solution. 
NOTE 
These volumes were prepared for the press by a Committee consisting of : 
Sir Hector C. Cameron. 
Sir W. Watson Cheyne, Bt., C.B., F.R.S. 
Rickman J. Godlee, M.S. 
Gi). Martin’. MAD nS: 
Dawson Williams, M.D., F.R.C.P. 
