VIKULENT DISEASES. 179 



successfully used for injections. I also have recourse 

 to a solution of boracic acid to produce large evacua- 

 tions after the operation of breaking up stones in the 

 bladder (lithotrity). I never omit to use this anti- 

 septic agent in operations where breaking up is re- 

 quired, and I never wash the bladders of lithotritised 

 patients with any other substance. I have also had 

 good results from copiously washing the bladders 

 and the wounds of patients on whom lithotomy has 

 been performed with boracic acid. I always finish 

 the operation by prolonged irrigations with a solution 

 of from 3 to 4 per cent.' 



It was not only into France and Germany that 

 Pasteur's ideas penetrated ; in England, surgery bor- 

 rowed from Pasteur's researches important thera- 

 peutic applications. In 1865 Dr. Lister began in 

 Edinburgh the brilliant series of his triumphs in 

 surgery by the application of his antiseptic method, 

 now universally adopted. In the month of February 

 1874 in a letter which does honour to the sincerity 

 and modesty of the great English surgeon, he wrote 

 to Pasteur as follows : 



' It gives me pleasure to think that you will read 

 with some interest what I have written about an or- 

 ganism which you were the first to study in your 

 memoir on lactic fermentation. I do not know 

 whether you read the ' British Medical Journal ; ' if 

 so, you will from time to time have seen accounts of 



