178 THE ADDRESS IN SURGERY DELIVERED BEFORE 



The same cause that led to the escape of the volatile antiseptic necessarily 

 occasioned a perpetual intermingling between the external air and that between 

 the meshes of the fabric, as any one acquainted with Graham's beautiful 

 researches into the laws of gaseous diffusion must at once admit. The only 

 constituent of the atmosphere which the cotton-wool could possibly exclude 

 is its dust ; and this we know, from Tyndall's experiment, it did exclude. Here, 

 then, we have another inevitable inference from fact, another truth, and that 

 in itself all-sufhcient, with reference to the antiseptic system of treatment ; 

 the truth, namely, that pus, blood, and the dead tissues in contused wounds 

 do not putrefy through the influence of the atmospheric gases, but through the 

 operation of particles of dust, which may be permanently deprived of septic 

 energy by the vapour of an agent like carbolic acid. I do not ask you to believe 

 that the septic particles are organisms. That they are self-propagating, like 

 living beings, and that their energy is extinguished by precisely the same 

 agencies as extinguish vitality, such as heat and the various chemical substances 

 to which I have referred, is certain, and is of the utmost practical importance. 

 But if any one, in spite of these facts, and in spite of the strong analogy of the 

 yeast plant, and the various kinds of fungi which we term mould, prefer to believe 

 that the septic particles are not alive, and to regard the vibrios invariably 

 present in putrefying pus or sloughs as mere accidental concomitants of putre- 

 faction, or the results, not the causes, of the change, with such a one I, as 

 a practical surgeon, do not wish to quarrel. Nor do I enter upon the question 

 whether spontaneous generation can take place at the present day upon the 

 surface of our globe. To do this, would be to engage in doubtful disputations, 

 which I promised to avoid. 



But I do venture earnestly to beg of all of you who are engaged in surgical 

 practice, that you will give these simple facts your careful consideration ; and 

 if you think the interpretation I have given a sound one, do not let any state- 

 ments, whether in books or in journals, shake your belief in the truth that 

 putrefaction, under atmospheric influence, as it occurs in surgical practice, is 

 due to particles of dust ever present in the atmosphere that surrounds our 

 patients, and endowed with wonderful chemical energy and power of self- 

 propagation, yet happily readily deprived of energy by various agents which 

 ma}^ be employed for the purpose without inflicting serious injury upon the 

 human tissues. With this as your guiding principle, you will find yourselves 

 successful with the antiseptic system of treatment ; but without it, whatever 

 theory you adopt, you will ever be walking in the dark, and therefore ever 

 liable to stumble. 



And now I proceed to the second division of my subject — the exhibition 



