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Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



and, besides, as the catgut was not hardened, it very quickly swelled up in the 

 tissues and the knot became inefficient.) Lister very soon found that catgut 

 as it came from the makers was quite useless, it swelled up in a few hours, 

 the knot got loose and when applied to a vessel in its continuity the lumen of 

 the vessel opened up again. He therefore made many experiments on the 

 preparation of catgut so that it should remain firm in the tissues, should not 

 be absorbed for some time, and should at the same time be aseptic. His 

 researches on the preparation of a suitable catgut ligature were carried on 

 intermittently for many years. 



Another point to which he devoted much attention at this early period was 

 the drainage of wounds. One of the first points which became evident was that 

 as the result of the irritation of the carbolic acid a large amount of serum was 

 poured out during the first two or three days after the operation and this had 

 to be got rid of, otherwise it distended the wound and interfered with the 

 healing. Drainage of the wound was therefore necessary in order to allow this 

 serum to escape. At first he carried this out by introducing a piece of lint and 

 later of gauze into one corner of the wound, but this proved to be inefficient 

 and objectionable in many ways, and later on he resorted to indiarubber tubes. 

 It is interesting to note that the first patient on which he used an indiarubber 

 tube was Her late Majesty Queen Victoria, for whom he was called on to 

 treat a large axillary abscess. I may quote Sir Hector Cameron's description : 

 " In due course it (the abscess) was opened, with all antiseptic precautions, the 

 line of incision in the skin having first been frozen by the use of Kichardson's 

 spray apparatus. Up to that time it had been Lister's practice in such cases 

 to introduce a narrow strip of lint dipped in an oily solution of carbolic acid 

 (1 to 4) through the incision, with the object alike of preventing primary union 

 and of acting as a drain. This practice was followed on the present occasion. 

 Next morning he was disappointed to find that little or no drainage had taken 

 place and on withdrawal of the lint, thick pus, similar to the original contents 

 of the abscess, escaped in quantity. Local tenderness and fever still also 

 persisted. The same state of matters was found at one or two subsequent 

 dressings. During a walk in the open air (a favourite practice with him 

 when trying to solve a knotty problem), it occurred to Lister that if he could 

 make use of some aseptic tubular drain, instead of the oiled lint, matters 

 might progress favourably. Accordingly, on retiring to his bedroom that 

 evening, he cut out a piece of the indiarubber tube of the Eichardson's spray 

 apparatus of suitable length and, having cut holes in it and sewed, into one 

 end of it a piece of silk thread, he placed it to soak all night in some watery 

 solution of carbolic acid (1 to 20). In the morning he was pleased to find 

 that the rubber was in no way weakened or altered in structure and, when 

 changing the dressings, he substituted the tube for the strip of lint. At the 

 next dressing he had, as he said to me, ' the inexpressible joy ' of finding that 

 not only had free drainage occurred into the antiseptic dressings, but that the 

 discharge was now very thin and watery. Soon it became entirely serous in 

 character, while it rapidly diminished in quantity. . All constitutional 



