1880.] 



President's Address. 



97 



fessor Lister has devoted himself for the last thirteen years. His 

 thoughts and practice during this time have been in a state of growth. 

 His insight has been progressive ; and the improvement of experi- 

 mental methods founded on that insight incessant. By contributions 

 of. a purely scientific character, which stamp their author as an accom- 

 plished experimenter, he has materially augmented our knowledge of 

 the most minute forms of life. The titles of his papers indicate the 

 direction of his labours from time to time ; but they give no notion of 

 the difficulties which he has encountered, and successfully overcome. 

 He performs, without dread of evil consequences, the most dangerous 

 operations. He ventures fearlessly upon treatment which, prior to the 

 introduction of his system, would have been regarded as no less than 

 criminal. In the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, when wards adjacent to 

 his had to be abandoned, he operated with success in an atmosphere 

 of deadly infectiveness. Yividly realising the character and habits of 

 the ' invisible enemy ' with which he has to cope, his precautions are 

 minute and -severe. This demand for exactitude of manipulation has 

 rendered the acceptance of the Antiseptic System slower than it would 

 otherwise have been ; but a clear theoretic conception has this value 

 among others : it renders pleasant a minuteness of precaution which 

 would be intolerable were its reasons unknown. 



" The operative surgeons of our day have raised their art to the 

 highest pitch of efficiency. Their skill and daring are alike mar- 

 vellous. Mr. Lister urges an extension of this skill from the operation 

 to the subsequent treatment, contending that every surgeon ought to 

 be so convinced of the greatness of the benefits within his reach, as to 

 be induced to devote to the dressing of wounds the same kind of 

 thought and pains which he now devotes to the planning and execu- 

 tion of an operation. His impressive earnestness ; his clearness of 

 exposition ; his philosophic grasp of the principles on which his 

 practice is founded — above all his demonstrated success — have borne 

 their natural fruit in securing for him the recognition and esteem of 

 the best intellects of the age." 



" In a letter addressed to the writer on the 29th of September, 

 1880, Professor Helmholtz expresses himself thus: — 



" ' Professor Lister ist als einer der hervorragendsten Wohlthater 

 der Menschheit zu betrachten, und als eines der glanzendsten 

 Beispiele, wie segensreich scheinbar minutiose und abstruse wissen- 

 schaftliche Untersuchungen, wie die iiber die Erzeugung mikro- 

 skopischer Organismen, werden konnen. wenn sie von einem .Mamie 

 von umfassendem geistigem Gesichtskreise aufgenommen werden.' " 



" In a letter dated October 1st, 1880, Professor Du Bois Reymond 

 writes : — 



" ' The period of bloody warfare through which we passed not long- 

 ago, just when Professor Lister's methods were matured enough to be 



