504 



NATURE. 



[January 2, 191 3 



believed to be true, and, if necessary, teach them in 

 advance of the time, as the teaching- and the examina- 

 tion were both under his supervision. Hence Glasgow 

 students were the first to become imbued with the 

 spirit and to grasp thoroughly the principles of anti- 

 septics, which they carried into practice. Scottish 

 students thronged his wards and lecture-theatres in 

 the infirmaries, an eager, critical, and ultimately an 

 enthusiastic crowd, bringing inspiration to their 

 teacher, whose principles and practice they afterwards 

 bore to the ends of the earth, even before many 

 examining boards were prepared to accept his teach- 

 ing. 



Lister's Influence on the Scottish Students. 



Lister's presence in the Scottish universities was of 

 the utmost value. By him teaching was maintained 

 at a high level ; he used the universities to stimulate 

 thought, and therein aided them to perform their 

 highest function. It was an inestimable blessing to 

 a university to have such a man in it, and a priceless 

 privilege to the students— to those of them who could 

 appreciate it — to be allowed to stand silently by and 

 watch the habit of mind and see how the brain 

 worked. He was a man in earnest, and therefore 

 he taught. His teaching was supported by direct 

 appeal to nature. He accumulated data by observa- 

 tion and experiment, from both of which careful 

 deductions were drawn. As a thinker. Lister did 

 good by laying bare the difficulties he encountered in 

 carrying out his projects, and his modes of overcoming 

 these diflficulties. In this way he stimulated and pro- 

 pagated the thinking facujties of the student. He 

 showed his methods and thereby paved the way for 

 others to follow. 



In Glasgow Lister not only promulgated the theory 

 of antiseptic surgery, but he worked out and 

 thoroughlv established its utility in practice, leaving 

 behind I'-im a body of rnthuiiastic disciples. After 

 spending, as Regius professor of surgery, nine of the 

 most active years of his life, and those fullest of 

 scientific fruition, Lister passed quietly from Glasgow 

 without public recognition of his services, the general 

 body of citizens being unaware that a great scientific 

 achievement had been wrought in their midst. It was 

 long afterwards, when "all the world wondered," that 

 Glasgow became alive to what it had possessed — and 

 lost. 



The Students' Appreciation of Lister. 



As to the manner in which Lister was viewed by 

 the Glasgow students, the following is an extract 

 from a letter written me by a friend and fellow- 

 student, which so well e.\presses my own views that 

 I give it in his words : — 



"We students were all very much impressed by the 

 personality of Lister. His mild expression and his 

 grave demeanour gave him benign dignity which could 

 not fail to command respect. Even the impediment 

 in his speech, which in anotlier man might have been 

 a source of annoyance to his hearers, seemed in his 

 case only to add to the weight of what he said ; and 

 as he spoke slowly not a word of his lecture was lost. 

 You remember how his students more or less uncon- 

 sciously fell into a way of speaking which was a 

 manifest echo of the master's voice. This affectation 

 on the part of the students was simply an indication 

 of the hero-worship which pervaded Lister's class, 

 for there is no doubt we all idolised him. 



" I understand it has been said of Lister that he 

 was not a good lecturer, and that he was not a bril- 

 liant operator. You and I can laugh at such state- 

 ments. Lister's lectures were all that could be desired. 

 His subiect-matter was always interesting — generally 

 intensely SQ.; his thoughts were clear and well defined, 

 NO. 2253, VOL. 90] 



and he conveyed them to his hearers in choice and 

 vivid language which left no doubt as to his mean- 

 ing. As to his operating slowly, did he not tell us 

 that the advent of anaesthesia by chloroform had 

 rendered it unnecessary and undesirable to hurry 

 through the work? Lister was thinking out and 

 developing the antiseptic system at that time, and we 

 were privileged to listen day by day as he informed 

 us of his difliculties and how he proposed to overcome 

 them ; and so we watched the progress of those early 

 stages which laid the foundation for the final triumph. 

 . . . Above and beyond all petty details rises the 

 towering personality of the man while the mind dwells 

 fondly on the grandeur and beneficence of his achieve- 

 ments." (J. W. Allan.) 



From another of Lister's Glasgow students, and 

 one who was his house-surgeon in the Royal In- 

 firmary, Dr. J. Coats (now Colonel Coats), who was 

 among the first to practise antiseptic surgery in 

 private, an interesting letter of reminiscences has been 

 received, from which the following is culled : — 



" One day when Lister was visiting his wards in 

 the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, there was a little girl 

 whose elbow-ioint had been excised, and this had to 

 be dressed daily. Lister undertook this dressing him- 

 self. The little creature bore the pain without com- 

 plaint, and when finished she suddenly produced from 

 under the clothes a dilapidated doll, one leg of which 

 had burst, allowing the sawdust to escape. She 

 handed the doll to Lister, who gravely examined it, 

 then, asking for a needle and thread, he sat down and 

 stitched the rent, and then returned the dolly to its 

 gratified owner." 



On one occasion on which Lister visited my wards 

 in the Royal Infirmary, after he had been for some 

 time in London, we were walking together from a 

 ward in one part of the building to a ward in another, 

 bv means of a gangway of wood and glass, when 

 Lister remarked: "Macewen, do you find this bridge 

 a convenience to your work, for if so, you have to 

 thank me, as I was instrumental in getting it put 

 up?" I replied, "Yes, it is a convenience, but it is 

 nothing comnared to the greater gangway you pro- 

 vided, bv which the patients after operation cross 

 directh- from the wards into the midst of life and 

 health." I received a kindly look, a suppressed smile, 

 and a pressure of the arm. . . . 



In Edinburgh, though his system was met bv some 

 with determined opposition, it was adopted more or 

 less thoroughly by others, and by many of the younger 

 men enthusiastically. The students, though doubtful 

 at first, began to observe his results, and soon became 

 admirers of Lister and his work. 



When Lister entered the clinical theatre of the old 

 infirmary to deliver before a crowded audience his last 

 lecture there, he was presented with a farewell address 

 from the students. .As he rose to reply, the air was 

 rent with a rousing cheer that shook the building to 

 its foundation. .\ cheer such as only British students 

 — at rare moments — know how to give. It is spon- 

 taneous, and bur?^-- HI -• a blast from the throat of a 

 whirlwind. Lister '■'ect fairly overcome. One who 

 was near him. as a quiet observer, saw that he first 

 became pale, and then a blush covered all his visible 

 anatomy to the tips of his fingers. In a few moments 

 he recovered, and said: "Gentlemen, I can recall my 

 reception in the surgical theatre in Munich, on my 

 visit to Nussbaum, where I was greeted with a Ger- 

 man ' Hoch.' It was to me almost overpowering in 

 its enthusiasm, but it was as nothing compared to 

 this." (Dr. Young.) 



That spontaneous outburst issuing from four 

 hundred throats made amends for much. It was the 

 laurel crown offered bv the students. That rousing 



