The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-10-08
i A TITLED MEDICAL MAN
THE FATHER OF ANTISEPTIC
SURGERY.
Visits the Coast-Sketch of Lord Lis
Suffering Humanity.


Lord Lister of London. England. the
surgeon extraordinary to Her Males
~, Queen Victoria, and probably the
most distinguished living member of
the medical profession, who has done
more for humanity i'm the advance
ment of the art of surgery than any
man, living or dead. arrived in Seat
tie recently over the Canadian Paci-
fic, in the private car of Sir William
Van Horn, and was rendered IA recep-
ton at the Rainier club by the lead
ing physicians of the city, on his ar
rival.
The career of this most distine-
uished man is illustrated by long
list of titles and honors that have been
conferred upon him by the greatest
scientific societies on earth.
His title was conferred upon him in
the year 1884, and subsequently his III
tie was made hereditary. He is at
present president of the Royal Med
zeal Society of Great Britain; he has
the honory degrees of doctor of laws
from both Cambridge and Glasgow:
he is knight commander of the first
class, Order of Daneborg: knighted by
Emperor William |, with the Order OF
Merit of Prussia; he is Laureate of the
Academy of France: he has the royal
medal of the Royal Society of London.
and membership in nearly every
medical. surgical and scientific socie-
~ of national Importance on earth.
Lord Lister comes of an old Quaker
family of Yorkshire, and to his early
training he owes the simplicity of his
life, despite the honors of which he
has been the recipient. He is best
known to the world and to the medi-
cal profession as "the father of anti
septic surgery" and the world is most
indebted to him for his staunch adj
herence to a theory that time and
circumstances have proved to be true.
In was in 1867 that Lister published
his first paper on antiseptic fractures.
and in it he laid down the principles
which are now universally recognized
as being those which must guide the
profession in the treatment of human
wounds
He pointed out that it was not the
air itself nor the temperature of the
air, nor the nature of the injury. that
led to the calamities which followed
wounds, but that it was the living par
ticles which were present in the air
! and on surrounding obiects-bacteria
IN fact, which, falling into the wounds
| aud setting up decomposition of the
| discharges and also gaining access 10
/ the body, were the root of all the evil
/ troubles. He showed that the aim of
! the surgeon during the operation and
the object of his dressing afterwards
must he to prevent the entrance Of
micro-organiSms into an open wound
The substance which he used was car
bolic acid. and it is IA remarkable fact
/ that in spite of the numerous investi-
cations that have since been made.
and of numerous anti-septic substan-
ces that have since been introduced.
carbolic acid still retains its place as
the most important of all.
! Listers first paper was followed by
Others in which his system was elabo-
rated and the first methods of dress
| ing improved and the further history
of the subject has been advanced in
the methods of the application of the
| principles, but without essential de-
] Walton from the principles them
selves. Wound treatment, as enum-
ciated by Lord Lister. has since been
demonstrated by investigation to be
one of accuracy, and while amplified
! in many directions, it remains, and
! Will remain, untouched.
Along with the introduction of ase.
psis Lister also improved the treat.
ment of wounds in variety of ways
He pointed out the value of proper
] al N hn nf l.
the edges of wounds together and ne
taught his followers to cut ligatures
short and to introduce absorbable lig.
atureS. BY his theory in practice silk
/ threads hanging out of wounds were
got rid of and the danger of second.
airy hemorrhage was practically abol.
ished. No surer demonstration of the
advancement of surgery is possible
than an instance cited in the Practi-
toner. one of the leading medical
monthlies of London. that reviewed in
its Jubilee number Lord Listers work
! The Practitioner quotes the statement
of country surgeon. in Blenkinsop's
Memoirs 0S52), in which it was re-
lated to the author by his principal,
as they were riding across the coun-
try to perform an amputation:
I'm this kind of practice it is nee
essary to have your instruments well
secured; you see that | have my strap
ped fast around my body. | lost them
once when ] was going to amputate
an arm, but | sharpened cheese
knife and borrowed a carpenters saw
and got through it pretty we'll"
The Practitioner says the confer
ring of peerage upon Lord Lister is
an honor to the House of Lords as
well as a compliment to the medical
profession. There would be no talk
of ending the upper house." if it
were to sufficient extent "mended'
i'm so satisfactory a manner.
TO the new peer himself the dis
! tinction is doubtless of little account:
the name of Lister is in itself a
prouder title than anything that the
pomps of heraldry' could invent or the
fount of honor bestow."