ON THE APPLICATION OF A KNOWLEDGE OF 
HYDROSTATICS AND HYDRAULICS TO PRAC- 
TICAL MEDICINE’ 
Abstract of an Address delivered before the Medical Society of University College, London 
on October 11, 1882. 
[Lancet, 1882, vol. ii, p. 638.] 
REFERRING to Mr. Beck’s remark, in his excellent introductory lecture,’ 
that physiology is the application of chemistry and physics to the study of life, 
Mr. Lister said that it would naturally be expected that physics would be one of 
the subjects in which medical students would be compelled to show a certain 
amount of proficiency. By the latest regulations of the Medical Council students 
could be registered without giving evidence of any knowledge of physics, and as 
this subject was not required by the Royal College of Surgeons, these students 
could, and no doubt would, become registered practitioners without such 
training. In view of this, he proposed to show some of the practical uses in 
medicine of a knowledge of the simple facts of hydraulics and hydrostatics. 
Mr. Lister then first referred to the fact that fluid always maintains 
the same level in communicating tubes of different calibre, and from that 
passed on to describe the ‘ hydrostatic paradox’ and the Bramah press. As 
a practical application of this principle he adduced the treatment of a wound 
of one of the palmar arches. Insuch a case it was necessary to enlarge the wound 
sufficiently to see the exact bleeding-point, and to place the apex of a graduated 
compress exactly on this point ; for if the compress were inaccurately applied, 
the blood finding its way out of the wounded artery would convert the wound 
into a kind of Bramah press, and either force up the compress or distend the 
interstices of the softer tissues. From this Mr. Lister passed on to consider 
some of the simpler facts about fluids in motion. For this purpose he had a vessel 
of coloured water raised above the table, from which depended a rubber tube 
connected at its end with a fine glass nozzle. Allowing the fluid to flow through 
this apparatus, he noted the height of the jet of water, and then replaced the 
middle of the tube by an equal length of tube of double the diameter and four 
* Note by Lord Lister, April 1908: The account of this Address here given was published without 
my authority, and, though fairly accurate as a condensed report, is, as was natural under the circum- 
stances, very imperfect. 
* Lancet, 1882, vol. ii, pp. 559, 607. 
6 a sore aie 
