The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-02-03
The Three Great Names in
Modern Surgery.

Even the introduction of anaesthesia,
however. did not rid surgery OF all Its ter
rors. The acute pain of the operation was
abolished. but the after-sufrering. as /
know only too well in my early surgical
days. was something dreadful to see. The
parched lips OF the poor sufferer. tossing
uneasily during sleepless nights; wounds
reeking with pus. and patients dying by
scores from blood poisoning. from erysipe-
las. from tetanus. from gangrene. were only
too familiar sights In the pre-antiseptic
days. Then. again. there arose one OF
these deliyerers Of the human race whose
name can never be forgotten and whose
Zane SHAH last as long as time shall en-
dure. Jenner. Warren and Lister are a tri-
umyfrate OF names OF which any profession
may well be proud. Thank Godl they all
sprang from virile Anglo-Saxon loins. No
praise. no reward. no fame Is too great for
them. That Lord Lister still lives to sec
the triumph Of his marvellous services to hu-
mainly Is a joy to all Of US. And when the
profession arose en- masse within the last
Few years at the international Congress Of
Berlin and at the meeting of the British
Medical Association In Montreal and well
coined him with cheer after cheer, II was
but q feeble expression Of gratitude for
benefits which no words can express.
Before Listers day erysipelaS. ~tetanus
sangrene and -blood-poisonirg in its various
phases were the constant attendant Of ey-
cry surgeon. They were dreaded guests at
almost any operatlon: and when in rare
cases We obtained primary union without
a drop Of pus. without fever and with but
little suffering. 1t was a marvellous achieve
ment. Now 1t Is precisely reversed. The
surgeon who does not get primary union
without q drop OF pus. with no fever and
with little suffering, asks himself-what
was the fault in my technic7 To open the
head. the abdomen or the chest thirty
years ago was almost equivalent to sign
Ing the of a patient. The
early mortality OF ovariotomy was about 60
per cent: two out OF three died. Now many
q surgeon can point to q series of 100 alb
dominal operations with a fatality of only
2 per cent or 5 per cent. When Sir Spencer
Wells recorded his first Loo cases OF oyari-
otomy II was calculated that after deduct
Ing the years which the patient who died
from the operation would have lived had
no operation been done the net result of
the thousand cases was an addition of 90
90 years to human life. One thousand
ovariotomies under anttseptic precautions
at present would certainly add at least 3d.
600 years to human life. Would not such
q guerdon be enough for I'M man?
This. too is a direct result Of laborious
laboratory researches. beginning with the
investigations OF Lebig and Pasteur ON
fermentation. Lister went still further.
Even before the discovery OF the bacteria
OF suppuration, OF tetanus and of erysipe-
las. he showed US -experimentally how. by
surgical cleanliness. We could avoid all in
lection and SO Danish these pests from our
and bring life and health to many
who otherwise would have persisted from
operations which are now perfectly safe.
The mortality of compound fractures In
the pre-antiseptic days was about 50 per
cent. II was one OF the most dreaded Of
all accidents. Its mortality now Is perhaps
not over 8 per cent. and the mortality from
sepis after such q. fracture, In the hands
of well-instructed surgeons. is almost nil.
Prior to Listers day the mortality Of major
amputations varied from 30 to g per cent
Now 1t Is from 10 to 20 per cent. And so
! might go on with operation after opera
tion and show how they have become so
safe that one need not dread any. saving
exceptional cases.