THE ADDRESS IN SURGERY 



DELIVERED ON AUGUST lo, 1871, TO THE THIRTY-NINTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 

 BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION HELD IN PLYMOUTH 



[British Medical Journal, 1871, vol. ii, p. 225.] 



Mr. President and Fellow Associates. — My dut}- on the present occa- 

 sion is to endeavour, if possible, to give you an address commensurate in interest 

 with the very high honour of being selected to deliver it. With this object, 

 instead of attempting a general review of surgery, which has been presented 

 under various aspects by my able predecessors, I have concluded to bring before 

 you a subject which, though in some respects a special one, is calculated, as 

 I believe, to revolutionize almost every department of surgical practice ; I mean 

 the antiseptic system of treatment. The fact that my name is associated with 

 this topic tended to make me shrink from such a course ; but, on the other 

 hand, I could not but feel that this very circumstance has led in all probability 

 to my standing before you to-day, so that you might naturally expect to hear 

 something from me on this subject, while it is at the same time my sincere 

 conviction that I could not turn the present occasion to better account than by 

 exciting in you a keener interest in the antiseptic system than it has yet elicited, 

 and by placing you more in a position to diffuse its benefits among mankind. 



Among the causes which have hitherto interfered with the general accep- 

 tance of this mode of treatment, by far the most prejudicial is the doubt of its 

 fundamental principle, instilled by various authors who have opposed the germ 

 theory of putrefaction, and who, supposing themselves to be advocating the 

 cause of truth, have not only, as it appears to me, espoused the side of error, 

 but have unconsciously inflicted an amount of material evil upon their fellow 

 creatures such as mere speculative opinion is seldom able to produce. For 

 few medical men in active practice have the leisure to sift and weigh the facts 

 and arguments of such a discussion ; yet, if they lose firm faith in the guiding 

 principle of the treatment, the attainment of a full measure of success becomes 

 with them a matter of impossibility. ' Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere 

 causas ' was never more applicable than here. 



Another great cause of failure, and consequently of dissatisfaction with 

 the system, is the want of practical initiation into the treatment. For, greatly 

 as our means of carrying out the principle have improved of late, both in 

 simplicity and in efficiency, mere description seems inadequate to convey a clear 



