Vlll 



Obituary Notices of Felloivs deceased. 



the disinfection was carried out by immersion for a considerable time 

 (1-2 hours) in 1/20 watery solution of carbolic acid. 



While the lac plaster was a great improvement on the carbolic putty it 

 had the disadvantage that it did not absorb the discharge, and the next point 

 to which Lister turned his attention was to obtain some material as a 

 dressing for wounds which would absorb and retain the discharges while at 

 the same time preventing putrefaction in them. He tried oakum and 

 various other materials and ultimately fixed on the fine gauze material which 

 is still used at the present time, and he did a great deal of work with 

 the view of converting it into a suitable dressing. Though the gauze could 

 be disinfected by soaking it for a sufficient length of time in carbolic 

 solution, the discharge in passing through it very soon neutralised or 

 washed out the antiseptic and quickly underwent putrefaction in the 

 gauze. It was necessary, therefore, to store up the carbolic acid in the 

 gauze, so that it should on the one hand yield up enough to prevent the 

 discharges which passed through it from undergoing immediate decom- 

 position and on the other hand retain enough to avoid the necessity 

 of frequent changing of the dressing. He had already found that carbolic 

 acid had a great affinity for resin and that a resinous mixture only 

 parted with its carbolic acid slowly. But gauze impregnated with resin 

 formed a very sticky material which was unsuitable as a dressing. This 

 difficulty was overcome by mixing paraffin with the resin, and gauze 

 impregnated with this mixture was found to answer the purpose very well. 

 For the sake of economy he placed a piece of jaconet, previously sterilised 

 by immersion in 1/20 carbolic lotion, outside the gauze which was applied 

 over and around the wound so as to prevent the discharge passing straight 

 through it opposite the wound, but to compel it to travel over all the gauze 

 before reaching the surface. 



At this time he still laid great stress on infection from the air, and in 

 operating he constantly poured carbolic lotion into the wounds so as to 

 destroy any bacteria which might fall into them from the air, and in dressing 

 wounds a stream of carbolic lotion was kept flowing over the incision for the 

 same reason. It may be said here that, contrary to what has been generally 

 supposed, the lotion was never syringed into the wound after it had been 

 once closed, it merely flowed over the surface so as to prevent living dust 

 gaining access. It was soon found that although septic diseases were now 

 absent, such a free use of carbolic lotion not only obscured the view, but 

 caused a good deal of irritation of the wound, as evidenced by the large 

 amount of serous discharge afterwards, and also frequently led to carboluria, 

 though seldom to any serious signs of poisoning. Hence he recognised the 

 necessity of diminishing the amount of carbolic acid which came in contact 

 with the wounds, while at the same time preventing the access of living- 

 organisms, and after many experiments, he at length introduced the carbolic 

 spray. The spray producers were worked at first by hand- or foot-bellows, 

 but later by steam, and a very fine cloud of spray containing about 2\ per 



