June 7, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



565 



Then alas came the declining day with loss 

 of physical and at last of mental vigor and 

 finally the last closing of the eyes and a tablet 

 in the Abbey. 



Lister lived too long. It is better that every 

 man should go before declining powers betray 

 him. Strange to say both he and, if one may 

 judge from various hints, his biographer also 

 are disposed to be laudatores temporis acti, 

 and mourn what seems to me a natural and in- 

 evitable development from antisepsis to 

 asepsis, but which they regard as " a heresy." 



So far from Lister's " practise having been 

 discarded and his theory exploded " they have 

 never been so firmly entrenched as now. 

 Asepsis well suits civil practise in " clean " 

 cases, but not in deeply infected cases. The 

 Great War has recalled us to antisepsis, 

 by reason of the intensity of its infections. 

 The Carrel-Dakin method employs better anti- 

 septics than carbolic and better methods of 

 disinfection than Lister ever knew. The bac- 

 teriologist and the surgeon working together 

 determine when a wound may be closed with 

 assurance of success. Moreover if we can 

 treat contaminated wounds early, before the 

 bacteria have penetrated deeply and remove 

 all the devitalized tissue and on and in it the 

 great majority of the bacteria, the phagocytes 

 can care for the remaining mild infection. 

 Immediate closure may then be made. 



It has remained for a non-medical snarling 

 Irish critic, whose colossal egotism will readily 

 suggest his name, and an anonymous medical 

 reviewer both in the Nation (London) and an- 

 other writer in the English Review whose 

 article I have not seen, to belittle Lister and 

 declare that he was not a great man. 



With me the opinion of such judges as 

 Volkmann, Virchow, Pasteur, Weir Mitchell 

 and Lord Kelvin and the homage of thousands 

 at the Great Congresses in London, Amster- 

 dam, Philadelphia, Berlin, Montreal and else- 

 where are enough- His detractors will have 

 their day and cease to be, but "Humanity 

 with uncovered head will salute " the Great 

 Benefactor. 



Is not my opening sentence correct? 



Of course I had expected the superfluous 

 " U " (a sort of intruding philological U-boat) 

 in " tumour, labour," etc., although the Latin 

 originals of all such words have no " u." 

 Even the N. O. D. has " actor, also actour " ! 

 I must confess to surprise when I found the 

 archaic " plaister " (which the N. O. D.) prints 

 but marks " obsolete ") especially as Lister 

 himself wrote " plaster." W. W. Keen 



NOTES ON METEOROLOGY AND 

 CLIMATOLOGY 



THE " OLD-FASHIONED " WINTER OF igiy-igiS' 



'Even though summer is upon us, it is not 

 difficult to recall that last winter in the United 

 States east of the Eockies was remarkably 

 cold and snowy. The first killing frosts of 

 autumn came early, and nipped crops which 

 had started late and grown slowly in the cold 

 spring and early summer. The South had a 

 real winter, much to the detriment of fruit 

 and truck crops which were caught by frost. 

 By far the most intense winter conditions oc- 

 curred in the regions from the Ozarks to New 

 England, where low temperatures brought 

 snow with passing cyclones, and the snow- 

 cover in turn cooled the air excessively when- 

 ever the sky was clear. The unprecedented 

 snow and ice blockades brought the well- 

 known, long chain of uncomfortable and costly 

 results. 



In the eastern United States it was not sur- 

 prising that autumn months which in many 

 regions were the coldest on record, should be 

 followed by a December and a January that 

 defied the memories of the oldest inhabitants. 

 For example, in Ohio, a 64-year record fails 

 to show a colder December, and in New Eng- 

 land, January seems to have been the coldest 

 month at least since 1836, if an Amherst 

 record may be considered as representative. 

 In these cold months, new minimum tempera- 

 tures were established broadcast. Early in 

 December, for instance, temperatures as low 

 as 20° to 31° below zero (F.) were observed 



1 A more extensive account is to be found in the 

 Geographical Seview, May, 1918, Vol. 5. This ia 

 baaed essentially on serial publications of the 

 Weather Bureau, and on some press reports. 



