22 



discovi:hv 



approximate amount of water is ascertained by means 

 of a graduated dip-rod. This checks the more accurate 

 determination of the amount by means of the measure- 

 glass, and prevents any uncertainty as to the number 

 of times it has had to be successively filled. 



VoT explorers and travellers there is a portable rain- 

 gauge. This has a funnel of diameter 3 inches, 

 and every part is small in proportion for the sake of 

 portabilit}'. A good example of this type is the 

 Livingstone Portable Rain-gauge made on the same 

 lines as that originally supphed to Dr. Livingstone 

 for use in his African travels.' 



Before concluding this section, it may be well to 

 state briefly how the markings on the measure-glasses 

 are calculated. Since " an inch of rain " means a 

 cubic inch of water on a square inch of surface, we 

 proceed to calculate as follows. Let our rain-gauge 

 have a diameter of 8 inches. If it be filled with 

 water to the height of i inch, the volume of water 

 in it is-n-r-h {r = radius ; h = height), i.e. it X 4^ X i = 

 i6n- = 50'265 cubic inches. Now, when this amount of 

 water is poured into a Camden measure-glass, the 

 measure-glass has to record i inch. Since the 

 Camden when filled holds J inch only, its volume 

 must be 25-132 cubic inches. If R be its radius 

 and H the height that records i inch of rain, 

 ttBtH must equal 25132 cubic inches. R is usually 

 I J inches, .-. //= 5-12 inches. A measure-glass of 

 2} inches diameter, when filled to this height with 

 water from an 8-inch gauge, " records 1 inch of rain." 

 It is an easy matter now to calculate the heights which 

 record different hundredths of an inch. 



Note. — Further information on rain-gauges may be obtained 

 in_ The Principles of Aerography, by Alexander McAdie (Harrap, 

 21S. net); Meteorology for All, by D. W. Horner (Witherby, 

 6s. net) ; and Meteorology : Practical and Applied, by Sir John 

 Moore (Rebman, los. Cid. net). 



Lord Lister 



APRIL 5, 1827 — rEBKUARY 10, I912 



The Discoverer of the A nliseptic System of Surgery 

 By Edward Cahen, A.R.G.S., F.I.G. 



The rise of industrialism in the nineteenth century, 

 with the consequent migration of the artisans from the 

 country to the factories in the great towns, led to 

 overcrowding in the hospitals ; partly on account of 

 the decreased \itality and power of resistance to 

 disease, and partly because of the increased number of 

 accidents inseparable from such an existence. " Dis- 



' The illustration of this instrument is lent by Messrs. C. F. 

 Casclla, London. 



ease is the shadow of death that clouds the life of man. 

 When Lister was born this shadow was probably dcejxjr 

 than at any other time ; so deep, in fact, that it threat- 

 ened the very existence of industrial populations " • 

 for the reasons just given. It was to dispicl this 

 shadow that Lister was born in the spring of 1827, of 

 Quaker parents, who were then residing at West Ham. 

 His father was a scientist and a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society, and had made the first achromatic microscope, 

 and it was from him that young Lister learnt to appre- 

 ciate this instrument of research, which led to such 

 important results in his later work. 



He received his early education at a Quaker school, 

 and then passed to University College, Gower Street, 

 in 1844. Medical training was then just beginning to 

 emerge from the dark ages of body-snatching and 

 apprenticeship. In this school, which has turned out 

 so many distinguished men, he came into contact with 

 Thomas Graham, from whom he received a good 

 grounding in chemistry, and William Sharpey, the 

 Professor of Physiology, who awakened in him a keen 

 desire for research. In 1852 he published, with some 

 very fine drawings he had made in illustration, his 

 first piece of research, which dealt with the mechanism 

 of the iris of the eye. In time he became dresser and 

 later house surgeon to Eric Erichson, the author of 

 one of the most famous textbooks on surgery in the 

 English language. In this position he came across 

 " hospital gangrene " and all its horrors for the first 

 time. The general practice of the day was to bum 

 away the affected parts with caustic, but the suffering 

 and toll of death remained unabated ; there was a 

 very generally accepted %-iew that it was the oxygen 

 of the air which burnt up the tissues and gave rise 

 to the inflammatory conditions observed. Lister 

 discovered the true reason while examining the dis- 

 eased tissues with his microscope. He concluded that 

 the cause of the trouble might be " in the form of some 

 kind of fungus." 



In the same year that his first research was pub- 

 lished he was sent with a letter of introduction to 

 James Syme, the Professor of Clinical Surgery in 

 Edinburgh, and the greatest surgeon of his day. This 

 visit resulted in his remaining for twentj'-fivc years in 

 the North, and when he returned to London it was with 

 a world-wide reputation, and to convert his native 

 city to his system of antiseptic surgery. He held 

 various posts under Syme in the Edinburgh Infirmary, 

 and four years later married Syme's daughter ; thus 

 it came to pass that he gained from both father and 

 father-in-law the knowledge by which he was able to 

 revolutionise the art of surgery. 



There he studied the reaction of living tissue to 

 attack, and came to the conclusion which was the basis 

 » G. T. Wrench, M.D. 



