18 THE LIFE OF PASTEUB 



' 1 l BUI I method which was in itself an immense 

 and beneficial | -3; and Lister took pleasure in declaring 



that he owed to Pasteur the principle! which had guided him. 



time when or received the 1 I .bove que 



which ! him deep gratification, people in France were so 



from all tli. rind antisepsis and asepsis, that, wl 



he advised >ns at the Academic de M- lecine to put 



their instruments through a flame before using them, they did 

 not understand what he meant, and he had to explain — 



" 1 mean that surgical instruments should merely be put 



through a flam.', not really heated, and for this reason : if a 



sound wi with a microscope, it would be seen that 



surface presents grooves where dusts are harboured, which 



not be completely removed even by the most careful 



cleansing. Fire entirely destroys those organic dusts ; in my 



laboratory, where 1 am surrounded by dust of all kinds, I 



ret make use of an instrument without previously putting 



it through a flame." 



ir was ever ready to help others, giving them willing 

 advice or information. In November, L874, when visiting 

 the Hotel Dieu with Messrs. L;. nd Gosselin, he had 



occasion to notice that a certain cotton-wool dressing had been 

 very badly done by a student in one of Gruerin's wards, 

 wound on the dirty hand of a labouring man had been 

 with cotton wool without having been washed in 

 any way. When the bandaging was removed in the pi 

 of Guerin, the pus exhaled a repugnant odour, and was found 

 warm with vihriones. Pasteur in a sitting of the Academie 

 des Bcien red into details as to the precautions which 



. to get rid of the germs originally present on 

 the surface of the wound or of the cotton wool ; he declai 

 that the layers of cotton wool should be heated to a very high 

 •■'lire. Be also BUggested the following experiment: 

 " In order to demonstrate the evil influence oi ferment 



in the suppuration of wounds. 1 would make 



identical wounds on the two symmetrical limbs of an 



animal under chloroform; on one of those wounds I would 



• m-wool dressing with every possible precaution; 



on I D the contrary. I would cultivate, so to speak. 



mi from ■ strange sore, and offering, 



more or l<'ss, a s- ptio character. 



" Finally, I should like to cut open a wound on an animal 



