572 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VI., No. 151. 



displayed by one, the clear reasoning powers of 

 another, and the practical mind of a third, all 

 have their place, and combine to produce a result 

 which no one genius alone could have reached. 

 Harvey and Hunter may be selected as types of 

 the first class mentioned, as they were among the 

 earliest to make evident the necessity of an accu- 

 rate knowledge of the structure of the body as a 

 foundation for all further progress. In the mu- 

 seum which bears Hunter's name is to be found 

 a lasting monument of his influence in impress- 

 ing upon his contemporaries and successors the 

 need of a wide collection of data for scientific 

 induction. V^ith him may be classed Charles 

 Bell and Marshall Hall, whose careful physiologi- 

 cal experiments furnished many of the facts upon 

 which modern theories are based. The reasoning 

 mind which advances from facts to conclusions 

 is exemplified by such men as Bright and Addison 

 and HoUand. To put facts together, to balance 

 their comparative importance, to eliminate the 

 non-essential, and thus to reach a logical conclu- 

 sion, is the work of the diagnostician, — a work 

 which may not bring lasting fame, since it is con- 

 cerned with individual cases only, but which is 

 none the less important in increasing the sum of 

 general knowledge. It is, perhaps, in the prac- 

 tical application of facts and theories that the 

 English school has been pre-eminent. The names 

 of Astley Cooper, Syme, Jenner, and Lister, will 

 occur naturally in this connection. To Jenner 

 and Lister the race owes a tremendous debt. 

 They have saved, and are to-day saving, the lives 

 of thousands. And it is not only for the methods 

 of vaccination and antiseptic surgery that science 

 is indebted to them ; it is for the principle involved 

 in these methods, — the principle of preventive medi- 

 cine. To cure an individual case may be gratify- 

 ing, to discover a remedy for a single disease 

 may be beneficial ; but to find a means of making 

 the entire race exempt from certain dangerous 

 affections is indeed a triumj^h. Under Lister's 

 method of antiseptic surgery, operations are daily 

 performed which the boldest of all the surgeons 

 in this list of eminent men would never have ven- 

 tured to undertake. The liistory of Lister's dis- 

 covery is interesting. In 1860 he was put in charge 

 of a new hospital in Glasgow, and, although the 

 most approved principles were employed in its 

 construction, it proved extremely unhealthy. 

 Pyaemia, erysipelas, and hospital gangrene showed 

 themselves, affecting most severely those patients 

 in the wards nearest the ground. Lister noticed, 

 that, when nearly all the beds contained patients 

 with open sores, the diseases which result from 

 hospital atmosphere were sure to be present in an 

 aggravated form ; whereas, when a large proportion 



of the cases had no external wound, these evils 

 were greatly mitigated or entirely absent. He 

 had also been struck with an account of the re- 

 markable effects produced by carbolic acid upon 

 the sewage of the town of Carlisle ; the admixture 

 of a very small proportion not only preventing all 

 odor from the lands irrigated with the refuse 

 material, but also destroying the entozoa which 

 usually infest cattle fed upon such pastures. These 

 facts, taken in connection with others which he 

 had ascertained in experiments concerned in prov- 

 ing the germ theory of disease of Pasteur, led him 

 to the idea that if a wound could be closed to the 

 entrance of air, or be kept from all obnoxious 

 influences in the air by the use of carbolic acid, 

 the conditions for rapid healing without the com- 

 plication of hospital diseases might be fulfilled. 

 From this idea was developed the entire system 

 of antiseptic dressings which bears the name of 

 Lister. From the first experiments in the use of 

 these dressings, a change in surgical procedure 

 began ; and now, under their use, wounds which 

 never healed formerly under three or four weeks, 

 are completely healed in six days. Operations 

 which were followed by days of fever and distress 

 are now succeeded by rapid recovery without any 

 surgical fever. Various procedures are daily 

 undertaken wliich formerly would have been 

 unhesitatingly declared impossible, and pyaemia 

 and hospital gangrene have been almost banished 

 from wards where the system is properly carried 

 out (ii. 141-147). 



It would have added to the interest of this book 

 if a large number of details had been given re- 

 garding the personal characteristics of the physi- 

 cians whose lives are sketched. Even without these, 

 however, the book will prove of interest both to 

 those in the medical profession who wish to know 

 something of their English predecessors and con- 

 temporaries, and to those outside of the profession 

 who are interested in the history of the progress 

 of science. M. A. S. 



Dr. a. B. Griffiths, of the Manchester techni- 

 cal school, has published the following account of 

 an assay of gold ore from the vicinity of Constan- 

 tinople : *' The gold is disseminated in very small 

 pieces here and there through a quartz and earthy 

 matrix. The ore comes from mines which have 

 not been worked for several centuries, and were 

 thought to be exhausted of gold. The assay, both 

 by dry and wet methods (of a carefully selected 

 sample), gave 3 oz. 14 dwt. of gold per ton of ore. 

 The gold in the ore contains iron and copper, and 

 a very small quantity of silver. The matrix is 

 composed chiefly of quartz, but contains calcium 

 carbonate, fen-ic oxide, alumina, and lime." 



