HISTORICAL, 9 
count he washed all such wounds with a 2% to 5 per cent. solu- 
tion of carbolic acid, and he even used chloride of zinc in the 
form of an 8 to Io per cent. watery solution, in which case he 
used carbolic acid only after the removal of the infection. Not- 
withstanding these facts he did not succeed in making every 
wound aseptic, which he explained by the fact, that the car- 
bolic acid solution does not always enter into all the recesses 
and sinuses of a wound. 
LISTER had so much success with this method, that it was 
justly wondered at, for while in his own practice, prior to the 
antiseptic time, 45.7 per cent. cases of amputation died; this 
number, by the application of antiseptics, was reduced to 15 
per cent. Healing of wounds by first intention became by 
using LISTER’S method, a rule, while in the ante antisep- 
tic times such occurrences were considered as exceptional and 
mere coincidents. Notwithstanding these successes there 
were numerous surgeons who claimed not to have had 
extra good results with this mode of treatment, but the fault 
was with the surgeon, not in the method. LISTER stated 
expressly that his successes were due mainly to the minutes! 
observation of all individual details, and this rule LISTER’S 
antagonists violated persistently. 
On the recommendation of SCHULTZE, R. VOLKMANN 
and THIERSCH undertook to put LISTER’S method to a 
test. Both came to the same conclusion, namely, that upon 
minutely observing LISTER’S rules, the advantages gained by 
his methods were so great that the old mode of treating 
wounds could not at all compare with it. The statistics fur- 
nished by VOLKMAN and THIERSCH left no doubt what- 
ever as to this fact. They both had but one objection; that is, 
that the carbolic acid did not prove harmless in some col- 
lapsed conditions, as intoxications occasionally appeared after 
an operation. LISTER himself does: not mention anything of 
carbolic intoxications, possibly he did not recognize them; 
however, VOLKMANN, as well as THIERSCH reported 
them, and they looked about for a substitute that would be 
harmless to the organism. THIERSCH adopted salicylic acid 
