Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-04-19
GREAT LIFE SAVER,
LORD LISTER, TILE "GRAND OLD
MAN" OF SURGERY.
He Has Saved q Quarter Of q Million
Lives BY HIS Famous Discov.
cry Of Germ De-
sroyer.

OoS WACA 0oAOlS I6 f6fl SuCU
LOT the skill with which men compass
me death Of thousands Of their fellows
one cannot pay too much homage to
lhose whose mission 1t Is to save and
not 70 destroy life, and happily, says
tne Chicago Chronicle, there still re-
MAINS among us the king of them all,
= man On whose monument may some
day be inscribed this remarkable
legend: He saved q quarter of nil
lion lives"
40 no other man who has ever lived
can such q tribute be paid; but to
assert that Lord Lister, the grand old
man OF surgery, has snatched ESQ, 900
men from the grave is probably to
unoerstate the truth. When Joseph
Lister drst made his acquaintance with
a hospital about 60 years ago, an OPP
Grafton OF any Importance meant al
most certain death, and even quite
simple operations were full OF risk.
me wounds made By the surgeons
knife refused to heal putrefaction was
followed by suppuration, the patients
became deltrious and In q startling ma
jority OF cases died
IL was Lord Lister who discovered
the deadly secret Of all This mortal
lily. He found that the putrefaction
OF the wound was due to the presence
OF germs which were introduced from
outside, and in earbolic acid he dis
covered the means to kill these germs,
thus by this simple discovery revo-
lutionizing surgery and saving count
Less lives. An early result OF this
antiseptic treatment was that gan
creme which had infected 80 per cent.
OF the wounds disappeared entirely"
and to-day operations which would
nave meant certain death half q Gen.
tury ago are performed daily without
the least risk Of fatal consequences.
Such In briefest outlook Is the
change Lord Lister has wrought In
surgery. and one has only to read Of
the horrors Of the hospitals in pre-
Historian days, with their delirious
and dying patients, and their COM
pound odoc Of boiled mutton and sour
poultices" and then to pay q visit to
hospital Of to-day to realize how
revolutionary Is the change wrought
by this one man
It is go years almost to day since
young Lister began 10 study surgery
and medicine at University college.
London. He was the son Of Q very
clever man. q fellow Of the Royal 60
ctety, and the inventor. practically. OF
the modern microscope. and, as might
be expected from the son Of such a
father. he quickly distinguished him
self among his fellow students, gradu-
ating brilliantly and taking the COW
eted F. r. G. s. before he was Is.
Then followed q period Of splendid
training under the great surgeon, Mr..
Syme. whose daughter he married. and
in 1860. at the early age Of 80, he was
made regius professor Of surgery at
Glasgow.
It was here that he became so deep
ly impressed by the terrible mortality
due to operations and he set to
work to discover the cause. with the
results which we have described.
There are still living students who
saw him first experiment In antisep-
tic surgery by making paste OF car
bolic acid over the wound, and 1t was
soon admitted that Lister wards"
were the healthiest In the world. But,
like many another prophet, he found
least appreciation among his own
countrymen. Germany, France and
other continental countries adopted his
methods with avidity, ard his fame
was European before Great Britain be-
came tardy convert to his teaching.
However. unlike 80 many world bene-
factors, he has lived to see the uni
persal triumph of his discovery and to
reap honoIs such as fall to few men
in a century.
And never, perhaps, did SO great a
man bear his honors so modestly. At
7S he remains. to quote a great sur
geon, "as simple and lovable as
child" His old pupils adore him:
his numberless friends respect and
love him; the world counts him one
of its greatest benefactors. For the
rest he Is an ardent lover OF nature.
skilled in botany and woodcraft, and
he declares that the sweetest music on
earth Is the song OF birds.