xii Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



catgut, and great care was taken to unite the edges accurately without tension. 

 We had also drainage tubes, and in many operations on the extremities the 

 limbs were rendered bloodless. The instruments, sponges, and anything which 

 came in contact with the wound were sterilised by prolonged immersion in 

 1-20 carbolic lotion, and the surgeon's hands and the skin of the patient in the 

 region of the operation were thoroughly disinfected by carbolic lotion. As a 

 result septic diseases were entirely abolished. There was no pyaemia; erysipelas 

 was hardly ever seen, unless in cases already suffering from it when admitted ; 

 there were no cases of hospital gangrene, nor of tetanus developing after 

 operation. It is true that suppuration did occasionally occur in a wound, 

 perhaps three or four cases in the course of a session, and when this took 

 place very thorough investigation was made as to the source of infection, so 

 as to avoid it in future. In this way the treatment was steadily improved, 

 and with experience the necessary precautions became more and more 

 automatic. 



When one bears in mind that these advances had been made in the treat- 

 ment of wounds in some seven and a half years, and that the methods, 

 starting with the use of undiluted impure carbolic, had been constantly 

 improved till they had reached the stage described above, one can realise 

 what a prodigious amount of labour and thought had been expended on 

 it. During all this period improvements in the surgical procedures, as 

 apart from the question of asepsis, were also constantly being carried out 

 in all directions, as will be presently referred to. Further, Lister carried 

 on his duties as Professor of Surgery and Clinical Surgery most efficiently 

 and conscientiously, and also his hospital and private work. When we 

 consider all this it is clear that the results could only have been reached by 

 a man of splendid physique, and gifted with extraordinary mental endow- 

 ments and powers of observation and deduction. 



Although at this time (1873) septic diseases had been abolished and the 

 range of surgical work had been greatly widened, Lister was not satisfied 

 that he had worked out the best possible method and was getting the best 

 results. The model which he had always before him was the subcutaneous 

 wound, and his aim was that as soon as the operation was over and the 

 wound stitched up it should become practically a subcutaneous wound and 

 that only a certain period of rest should be necessary to complete the cure. 

 The perfect result would be that at the end of the operation a dressing would 

 be put on to protect the line of incision, and that when it was removed at the 

 end of a suitable length of time (say, eight to ten days) the wound would be 

 found healed, not only at the surface, but in depth, the stitches would have 

 become absorbed, and nothing further in the way of dressings would be 

 required. 



To attain this ideal two things were necessary, firstly, that living 

 bacteria should be completely excluded from the wounds, and, secondly, that 

 the means employed to keep out the bacteria should not unduly injure or 

 irritate the tissue. The first had already been attained almost completely, 



