138 



NA TURE 



[JDcr. 9, 1880 



A'^ 



TBE ROYAL SOCIETY MEDALS 



T the conclusion of his anniversary address on Tuesday last 

 eek, the President, Jlr. Spottiswoode, delivered the 

 medals which have been awarded this year, and in doing so 

 spoke as follows : — 



The Copley Medal has been awarded to Prof. James Joseph 

 Sylvester, F. R.S. His extensive and profound researches in 

 pure mathematics, especially his contributions to the Theory of 

 Invariants and Ccvariants, to the Theory of Numbers, and to 

 Modern Geometry, may be regarded as fully establishing Mr. 

 Sylvester's claim to the award of the Copley iledal. 



One Royal Medal has been awarded to Prof. Joseph Lister, 

 F.R.S. Mr. Lister's claims to the honour of a Royal Medal 

 are based upon his numerous and valuable contributions to 

 physiological and biological science during the last thirty 

 years. 



By permission of its author, the Fellow of the Society best 

 qualified, by his own extensive researches on the germ theory, 

 to form a judgment, I quote the following account of Prof. 

 Lister's work and achievements : — 



" In 1S36 and 1S37 it was proved independently by Cagniard 

 de la Tour and Schwann, that vinous fermentation was due to 

 the growth and multiplication of a microscopic plant. At the 

 same time Schwann described experiments which illustrated and 

 explained the conditions, now well known, by which flesh may 

 be preserved from putrefaction. But Schwann's researches were 

 overshadowed by the views of accepted authorities, and they 

 continued so up to the publication of Pasteur's investigations. 

 From this point forward the view gained ground that putre- 

 faction is the work of floating microscopic organisms ; and that 

 if air be thoroughly cleansed of its suspended particles, neither 

 its oxygen, nor any other gaseous constituent, is competent to 

 provoke either fermentation or putrefaction. 



"Condensed into a single sentence, the merit of Mr. Lister 

 consists in the generalisation, to living matter, of the results 

 obtained by Schwann and Pasteur with dead matter. He 

 began with cases of compound fracture and with abscesses. In 

 simple fracture the wound is internal, the uninjured skin forming 

 a protecting envelope. Here nature works the cure after the 

 proper setting of the injured parts. In compound fracture, on 

 the other hand, the wound extends to the surface, where it comes 

 in contact with the air ; and here the operator can never be sure 

 that the most consummate skill will not be neutralised by 

 subsequent putrefaction. 



" In the earliest of his published communications Mr. Lister 

 clearly enunciates, and illustrates by cases of a very impressive 

 character, the scientific principles u|)on which the antiseptic 

 system rests. He refers to the researches of Pasteur, and shows 

 their bearing upon surgery. He points to the representative 

 fact, then known but unexplained, that when a lung is wounded 

 by a fractured rib, though the blood is copiously mixed w ith air, 

 no inflammatory disturbance supervenes ; while an external 

 wound penetrating the chest, if it remains open, infallibly causes 

 dangerous suppurative pleurisy. In the latter case the blood and 

 serum are decomposed by the microscopic progeny of the germs 

 which enter with the air ; in the former case the air is filtered in 

 the bronchial tubes, and all solid particles are arrested. Three 

 years subsequently this inference of Prof. Lister was shown to 

 be capable of experimental demonstration. 



"After enunciating the theoretic views which'guided him, he 

 thus expresses himself in his first paper : — 



"'Applying these principles to the treatment of compound 

 fracture ; bearing in mind that it is from the vitality of the 

 atmospheric particles that all the mischief arises, it appears that 

 all that is requisite is to dress the wound with some material 

 capable of killing these seplic germs, provided that any sub- 

 stance can be found reliable for this purpose, yet not too potent 

 as a caustic.' 



" This is the thesis to the illustration and defence of which 

 Prof. Lister has devoted himself for the last thirteen years. 

 His thoughts and practice during this time have been in a state 

 of growth. His insight has been progressive ; and the improve- 

 ment of experimental methods founded on that insight incessant. 

 By contributions of a purely scientific character, which stamp 

 their author as an accomplished experimenter, he has materially 

 augmented our knowledge of the most minute forms of life. The 

 titles of his papers indicate the direction of his labours from 

 time to time ; but they give no notion of the difficulties which 



he has encountered, and successfully overcome. He performs,, 

 without dread of evil consequences, the most dangerous opera- 

 tions. He ventures fearlessly upon treatment which, prior to 

 the introduction of his system, would have been regarded as no 

 less than criminal. In the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, when 

 wards adjacent to his had to be abandoned, he operated with 

 success in an atmosphere of deadly infectiveness. Vividly 

 realising the character and habits of the ' invisible enemy ' with 

 which he has to cope, his precautions are minute and severe. 

 This demand for exactitude of manipulation has rendered the 

 acceptance of the Antiseptic System slower than it would other- 

 wise have been ; but a clear theoretic conception has this value 

 among others : it renders pleasant a minuteness of precaution 

 which would be intolerable were its reasons unknown. 



"The operative surgeons of our day have raised their art to 

 the highest pitch of efficiency. Their skill and daring are alike 

 marvellous. Mr. Lister urges an extension of this skill from the 

 operation to the subsequent treatment, contending that every 

 surgeon ought to be so convinced of the greatness of the benefits 

 within his reach as to be induced to devote to the dressing o£ 

 wounds the same kind of thought and pains which he now devotes 

 to the planning and execution of an operation. His impressive 

 earnestness ; his clearness of exposition ; his philosophic grasp 

 of the principles on which his practice is founded — above all his 

 demonstrated success — have borne their natural fruit in securing 

 for him the recognition and esteem of the best intellects of 

 the age. 



"In a letter addressed to the writer on the 29th of September, 

 iSSo, Prof. Helmholtz expresses himself thus : — 



" ' Prof. Lister ist als einer der hervorragendsten Wohlthater 

 der Menschheit zu betrachten, und als eines der gliinzendsten 

 Eeispiele, wie segensreich scheinbar minutiose und abstruse 

 wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen, wie die iiber di Erzeugung 

 mikroskopi-cher Organismen, werden kbnnen, wenn sie von 

 einem Mamie von utufassendem geistigen Gesichtskreise 

 aufgenommen werden.' " 



" In a letter dated October ist, 1880, Prof. Du Bois Raymond 

 writes : — 



"'The period of bloody warfare through which we passed 

 not long ago, just when Prof. Lister's methods were matured 

 enough to be freely used even on the battlefield, has of course 

 contributed to render his name popular throughout Germany ; 

 nay, to make it a household word in many homes. We use the 

 word ' li?tern ' as a verb to designate the use of the carbol- 

 spray while bandaging a wound. I do not hesitate to proclaim 

 Lister the greatest benefactor of mankind since Jeniier's wonder- 

 ful discovery — far superior, indeed, to Jackson and Simpson : 

 because, whatever may be the dread of pain and the blessing of 

 being spared it, in Lister's invention health and life itself are 

 concerned, as in haidly any other medical discovery except 

 vaccinatiim. Moreover, the general ideas which have led to 

 Prof Lister's conception stamp his work with a peculiarly 

 scientific character.' 



" In a letter dated from Vevey on the loth of this month, 

 Prof. Kli-bs of Prague, himself a distinguished worker in this 

 field, expresses in the strongest terms his admiration of the 

 profound 1 hilosophical intuition and practical success of Mr. 

 Lifter, as having not only reformed the whole art of surgery, 

 but given a new impulse to medical science generally. Prof, 

 Klebs's interpretation of the opposition encountered firr a time 

 by Mr. Lister i^ worthy of mention. He ascribe it to the high 

 standard attained l>y British surgery before the time of Lister. 

 'The operators,' he says, 'that work under the best hygienic 

 conditions will not feel so acutely as others do the necessity of 

 disinfecting wounds. But the good results of the former British 

 surgery are now surpassed by the new- method, which is accepted 

 at the present time Iiy the whole world.' 



"Such testimunies might be multiplied to any extent. The 

 foreguiufi are the answers received from the only three jjentle- 

 men who have been requested to express an opinion as to the 

 merits of Mr. Lister." 



The second Royal Medal has been awarded to Capt. 

 Andrew Noble, laie R.A., F.R.S. Capt. Noble is joint author 

 wiih Pr..f. Abel of the "Researches on Explosives," Phil. 

 Trans., 1875, which, in combination with other labours in the 

 same field, procured for Prof. Abel the honour of the Royal 

 Medal in 1879. To Pr >f. Abel is due mainly the chemical part 

 of these investigations; to Capt. Noble the mechanical and 

 mathematical part. Each is a complement of the other, but it 



