LISTER: MASTER OF MODERN SURGERY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3230, 29 May 1911, Page 2

LISTER: MASTER OF MODERN SURGERY.

AN AGED SCIENTIST,

“Lord Lister has entered his eightyfifth year. He resides at a sev.smo cottage on the coast of Kent, and it is understood that lie hardly ever leaves his room,” says the “Morning Pest.” “It has been , stated by a high London surgeon that Lord Lister succeeded in applying scientific and practical- surgery to the benefit of mankind and to the sparing of hnmgn life and 1 suffering more than any other person who has ever lived. This high praise, of course, refers to the Lister treatmentknown as ‘antiseptic surgery. 5

A GREAT SURGICAL TRIUMPH. “In a letter sent to Sir Hector Cameron- but a few years age regarding his antiseptic treatment, Lord Lister stated that m treating surgical cases he always endeavored to avoid the directaction of the antiseptic substance upon the tissues, so far as was consistent, in the existing state of knowledge, with attaining the essential 'object- of preventing the development of inju-rious microbes in the part concerned. _ln compound 1 fracture, to which in 1865 he first put in practice the antiseptic principle, lie applied undiluted carbolic acicl freely to the injured part- in order to destroy the septic microbes already present. The ca-rbolic acid formed with the blood a dense chemical compound which, together with some layers of lint steeped in the acid,- produced a crust that adhered firmly to the wound and the adjacent part till the danger was over, its surface -being painted from time to time with the acid, to guard against the penetration of septic change into its substance. Meanwhile in the undisturbed! wound the portions of tissue which had -been destroyed by the caustic, were replaced by living tissue formed at their expense. “That dead tissue, -when protected from external influences, was so disposed of, was a most important truth new to pathology, and it afterwards suggested the idea of the catgut ligature. The introduction of - this new method in the- ligature of vessels by Lord Lister, when he was Professor at the University of Glasgow, was a great surgical innovation.; Before practising this new method in his wards, he experimented on the vessels of a horse and a calf, and with such success that lie justified himself in using it in the human subject-. “Lord Lister’s teaching and work were characterised by the somewhat rare combination of the theoretical or deductive method -with splendid powers of observation and experiment,, coupled with indomitable perseverance in varying his procedure according to the results to be obtained.

“As a lecturer, Lord Lister spoke extempore, slowly and deliberately, thinking out his argument as he went along. His language was always clear and graceful, but almost never rhetorical. To his students and those who came into close contact with him in his work, he gave the impression of absolute truthfulness and trustworthiness in stating his -observations and experiments. BENEFICENCE. OF LITER-ISM. “The honors which have followed his course-have been conspicuous, and in one respect unprecedented in Britain. He is the first member for the medical profession who has been raised to the Peerage; lie was created a Baron in 1897, having been previously made a Baronet in 1883. His observations and discoveries in the antiseptic treatment, which have often been (referred to as ‘Listerim,’ are .now of world-wide fame and universal beneficence. A sentence from the congratulatory letter which was sent to him on the occasion of his eightieth birthday by the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons reads: ‘As time passes, the blessings which have followed, your life’s work have been innumerable, and the knowledge that they become each year* more and .more manifest must, we feel assure, be a source of extreme consolation t-o you in your distinguished and honourable retirement.’ ” •