January 2, 1913] 



NATURE 



499 



1 



LORD LISTER.^ 

 Introductory Remarks. 

 T is said that the Egyptian kings, after death, had 

 to undergo a trial before they were embaUned. Our 

 great men appear to be similarly arraigned, as their 

 character and attainments are brought to judgment 

 by the lesser ones of earth, who bear testimony con- 

 cerning them, weighing them in their own balance, 

 each to his entire satisfaction. 



The reputation of the smaller great men may be 

 affected bv this judgment. The reputation of the truly 

 great lies' beyond the reach of blame or praise, and 

 lives on in history after all those wlio have weighed 

 them have been forgotten. Such was Lister. 



Unlike the Egyptian kings, however. Lister was 

 tried during life. 'His struggle with disease and with 

 the mind of his fellow-men, though long and severe, 

 was ultimately successful, and the great good achieved 

 by the adoption of his methods was universally 

 acknowledged. Whilst yet in the autumn of his life 

 he was able to look on at the spread of the antiseptic 

 system over ever-widening areas, and to rest in the 

 c'onsciousness that he had" accomplished a great work 

 for the good of mankind. 



It would be out of place here to lay before you in 

 their order the honours and titles showered upon 

 Lister in the latter period of his life, or to refer to 

 the impressive ceremony on the occasion of his funeral 

 in the fane of the immortals — Westminster Abbey — 

 save to remind you that, though the Abbey was open 

 to receive his remains, the true man was shown in 

 him when he directed that his body should be laid 

 where his dust would mingle with the ashes of one 

 he loved, and who had been his constant companion 

 and helpmate during the most active portion of his 

 life. 



Lister's Early Days. 

 His Father, Joseph Jackson Lister. 



Lister was blessed in his earlier days by excellent 

 environment, well suited to one who was about to 

 follow a scientific career. 



His father, Joseph Jackson Lister, was a man of 

 outstanding scientific merit. He left school at four- 

 teen years of age, to assist his parent at the wine 

 trade, in London, and though for many years closely 

 tied down to business, he yet contrived, by early rising 

 and otherwise, to gain free hours in which to supple- 

 ment the education received at school, which, though 

 sound, was insufficient for his needs. He was thus, 

 in many respects, a self-taught man. He possessed 

 extreme accuracy of thought, and was a most method- 

 ical worker, skilful with brush and pencil. As a 

 microscopist he was the first to solve the problem of 

 the achromatic lens, whilst many observations on 

 zoophytes and ascidians were made by him — a paper 

 on the former appearing in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions. 



Here, then, was a man of grit, who left school 

 at fourteen years of age to enter business in London, 

 but who, bv dint of his own exertion, found means 

 to extend his scanty education, devoting what time 

 he could to scientific pursuits with accuracy of thought 

 and methodical work. Had it been in one's power 

 to choose a father for Lister, one could not have 

 chosen a man better suited to the purpose. 



His Teachers and their Influence. 

 The influence of Sharpey upon young Lister was 

 great. At University College he was guided by 

 Sharpev to undertake important researches, which 



hy Sir William Mnce»en, F.R.S. 



NO. 2253, VOL. go] 



were continued by Lister after he had left London. 

 Papers were written by him upon numerous physio- 

 logical and histological subjects — such as the con- 

 tractile tissue of the iris, an inquiry regarding the 

 parts of the nervous system which regulate the con- 

 tractions of the arteries, the cutaneous pig- 

 mentary system of the frog, the coagulation 

 of the blood, the early stages of inflamma- 

 tion, &c. There also Graham aided him in the study 

 of chemistry, and furnished his mind with a sound 

 knowledge of its principles. In Edinburgh he studied 

 under Syme, and became a great admirer of Syme's 

 intellect and judgment, as well as of his skill as an 

 operator. This intimacy ripened and lasted through- 

 out the remainder of Syme's life. 



All these men were the best he could have been 

 educated under and associated with. The knowledge 

 and e.xperience gained from them admirably equipped 

 him for the life of research which he was about to 

 enter. 



It is obviously impossible here to deal with all the 

 periods of Lister's life, and therefore it has been 

 deemed expedient to select one of these, and that the 

 most vigorous of his career, when he evolved the 

 theory of antiseptics, and when he had to defend his 

 thesis. 



Pre-Antiseptic Days. 



In Lister's early surgical days in the Glasgow 

 Royal Infirmary he encountered the same phenomena, 

 which prevented the healing of wounds, in all hospitals 

 throughout the world. Suppuration in wounds was 

 the rule, and very profuse it generally was. Dressing 

 of the wounds had to be done daily, and sometimes 

 several times a day. 



The handling of highlj'-inflamed wounds was a 

 source of pain, and the dressing was anticipated by 

 the patients with an apprehension akin to terror, 

 especially as the exhausting process, with its accom- 

 panying high fever, reduced the resisting powers of 

 the individual to a low ebb. The suppurative process 

 invaded the deeper tissues, affecting the blood-vessels, 

 and produced septic thrombosis, from which septic 

 emboli were carried to distant parts. The effect of 

 the dissemination of the septic material was soon 

 shown in the high temperature, the violent rigours, 

 the profuse sweats, the sweetish, sickening odour from 

 the breath, the yellow cachexia, emaciation, and final 

 delirium which all too frequently ended in death. 

 Sometimes every patient in a ward who had a serious 

 operation performed upon him would be swept away. 

 The wards would then be emptied, lime-washed, well 

 ventilated, and reopened, soon to be the scene of 

 further pyaemic ravages. 



All this was most depressing for the attendants, 

 and many of the voung student dressers had at times 

 to retire to the restoring influences of the open air, 

 and there debate within themselves whether it were 

 physically possible for them to continue their work 

 in the midst of such scenes of suffering. 



Surgeons and patients alike dreaded operations, 

 owing to their terrible results, and only operations of 

 dire necessity were permitted to be performed. Severe 

 compound fractures were treated by amputation of the 

 limbs, as to attempt to save them was to court 

 disaster. Consequently amputations in those days 

 were common. It is impossible for students of the 

 oresent day adequately to realise the conditions which 

 previously existed. 



Inflammation supposed to he necessary to Wound 

 Healing. 



Surgeons were ever at work, attempting to discover 

 the cause of this excessive inflammation, and many 

 were the theses and volumes written on the subject. 



