282 



LORD LISTER 



fresh air; and I have felt ashamed when recording the re- 

 sults of my practice, to have so often to allude to hospital 

 gangrene or pyaemia. It was interesting, though melancholy, 

 to observe that whenever all or nearly all the beds con- 

 tained cases with open sores, these grievous complications 

 were pretty sure to show themselves; so that I came to wel- 

 come simple fractures, though in themselves of little interest 

 either for myself or the students, because their presence 

 diminished the proportion of open sores among the patients. 

 But since the antiseptic treatment has been brought into 

 full operation, and wounds and abscesses no longer poison 

 the atmosphere with putrid exhalations, my wards, though 

 in other respects under precisely the same circumstances 

 as before, have completely changed their character; so that 

 during the last nine months not a single instance of pyaemia, 

 hospital gangrene, or erysipelas has occurred in them. 



As there appears to be no doubt regarding the cause of 

 this change, the importance of the fact can hardly be 

 exaggerated. 



