1901] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL 8 a 
experimenters. A great majority of medical men either 
believed, like Billroth, that the presence of fungi where 
decomposition was in progress was an accidental result 
of their universal distribution, or, being still more conser- 
vative, retained the old unquestioning faith that the bac- 
teria, whose presence in putrescent wounds as well as in 
the artificially prepared media was unquestionable, were 
spontaneously generated tbere. Before many of the im- 
portant bacteria had been discovered, and while ideas 
upon the relation of micro-organisms to disease were most 
crude, there were suggested some practical applications 
that produced greater agitation and incited more obser- 
vation and experimentation than anything suggested in 
surgery since the introduction of anaesthetics—namely, 
antisepsis. “‘It is to one of old Scotia’s sons, Sir Joseph 
Lister, that the everlasting gratitude of the world is due 
for the knowledge we possess in regard to the relation ex- 
isting between micro-organisms and inflammation and 
suppuration, and the power to render wounds aseptic 
through the action of germicidal substances.” Lister, con- 
vinced that inflammation and suppuration were due to 
the entrance of germs from the air, instruments, fingers, 
etc,, into wounds, suggested the employment of carbolic 
acid for the purpose of keeping sterile the hands of the 
operator, the skin of the patient, the surface of the wound, 
and the instruments used. He finally concluded an oper- 
ation by a protective dressing to exclude the entrance of 
of germs ata subsequent period. Listerism originated in 
1875, and when Koch published his famous work on the 
Wundinfectionskrankheiten, (or traumatici nfectious dis- 
eases), in 1878, it spread slowly at first, but surely in the 
end, to all departments of surgery and obstetrics. 
From time to time, as the need for them was realized, 
the genius of the investigators provided devices which 
materially aided them in this work. Some of these have 
been indispensible throughout all subsequent investiga- 
