LORD LISTER 



89 



College Hospital, and afterward to Mr Syme in 

 Edinburgh, and how it was continued through all 

 his Edinburgh and Glasgow life : — 



" After being appointed to the Chair of Surgery 

 in the University of Glasgow, I became one of the 

 surgeons to the Royal Infirmary of that city. Here 

 I had, too, ample opportunities for studying hospital 

 diseases, of which the most fearful was pyaemia. 

 About this time I saw the opinion expressed by a 

 high authority in pathology that the pus in a 

 pyaemic vein was probably a collection of leucocytes. 

 Facts such as those which I mentioned as having 

 aroused my interest in my student days in a case of 

 pyaemia, made such a view to me incredible ; and I 

 determined to ascertain, if possible, the real state of 

 things by experiment. . . . 



" While these investigations into the nature of 

 pyaemia were proceeding, I was doing my utmost 

 against that deadly scourge. Professor Polli, of 

 Milan, having recommended the internal admini- 

 stration of sulphite of potash on account of its anti- 

 putrescent properties, I gave that drug a very full 

 trial as a prophylactic. ... At the same time, I 

 did my best, by local measures, to diminish the risk 

 of communicating contagion from one wound to 

 another. I freely employed antiseptic washes, and 

 I had on the tables of my wards piles of clean 

 towels to be used for drying my hands and those of 

 my assistants after washing them, as I insisted 

 should invariably be done in passing from one 

 dressing to another. But all my efforts proved 

 abortive; as I could hardly wonder when I believed, 

 with chemists generally, that putrefaction was caused 

 by the oxygen of the air. 



"It will thus be seen that I was prepared to 



