The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1945-01-05

questions OF general interest,"
only, and then only through
his column.
Professor, DR.. Joseph Lister,
found that he could stop putrifae-
ton, or surgical gangrene, by the
application of carbolic acid 10 sur
gical wounds.
To memorabilia the anniversary
there has been published biogra-
ply of Joseph Lister, Father Of
Modern Surgery, by Rhoda Truax
published by Bobbs-Merrill Coz.
1t is the first popular full length
biography Of Lister designed TO be
understood and read by the lay
man. The story it tells must surely
be of vital interest TO every mod
ern man and woman.
did not say that modern sur
gerry was born under Listers d.
rectlon. said it came to maturity.
The most important problem of
surgery was to render the patient
insensible to pain during an opera
hon-anaesthesia, That was also
the subject of an anniversary last
month with the celebration of
Horace Wells use of nitrous oxide,
or laughing gas. But we described
that yesterday.
Control Of Infection
II Is difficult for q modern TO
realize the condition in early 1865
before Listers discovery. Sur
geons had learned TO control haze
morrhage and they could put pa
tients to sleep for a surgical pro-
cedure. Ether, nitrous oxide and
chloroform had all been intro
duced. But whenever the surgeons
knife touched a part of the body,
infection occurred - suppuration,
the formation of pus and finally
gangrene-hospital gangrene it
was called.
No surgeon in those days dared
open an abdomen, q chest, brain
cavity, dared operate on disease
at all-only accidents and wounds.
All the hundreds of helpful opera
tions that have been done every
morning this week in the hundreds
Of hospitals in our country were
forbidden him. The help that any
of my readers may be contemplate
ing from a surgical operation was
then not a matter Of choice-it
was utterly forbidden.
When a patient came in with .
crushed leg from an accident,
when in the just finished Ameri-
can Civil War a man was wounded
by bullet, the surgeon operated
and took a chance, but he did It
in full knowledge that it might
end fatally from infection, the
cause of which he did not know,
the control Of which completely
baffied him.
We know now, Of course, that II
was due to the entrance in the
wound Of germs, which are every
where in the air, on the instru-
ments he uses, on the ligatures,
dressings, hands of operator and
assistants. These can be destroyed
by boiling the instruments, steril-
izing the dressings, and cleansing
the hands and the patients skin,
but of that our surgeons of 1865
were entirely unaware.
Experience With Garbage
Joseph Lister happened TO
stumble on Pasteur's description
of minute organisms which caused
putrefaction. But it was really the
experience of the city Of Carlisle
in its destroying Of the smell Of
its sewage and garbage by the use
of carbolic acid that influenced
him most. In the cold and icy win
ter of 1855 in Glasgow when there
were many accidents he tried the
application of it to compound
fractures and managed TO save
limbs that would otherwise have
been lost. Soon the knowledge was
world wide and modern surgery
was started on its brilliant path.
Modern surgeons have improved
Listers technique, but his funda-
mental ideas still prevail.
Thestory is a dramatic one we'll
and accurately told by Miss
Truax. No person who in any way
claims to understand the modern
world can afford to be ignorant of
it.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
J. K.:-You mentioned nasal
douche and chest compresy' for
colds. Please explain just what
they are.
Answer: You can get a nasal
douche apparatus at any drug
store. Use hot salt water in it. The
druggist will explain how it works.
A chest compress Is a towel wrung
out of lukewarm water laid on the
chest and covered with layer Of
blanket.