An Address on a New Antiseptic Dressing
Authors: J. Lister
Journal: BMJ (1889)

When I last had the honour, live years ago, of addressing this Society at the request of its President, I brought before you an attempt I had made to utilise 'the powerful antiseptic properties of corrosive sublimate without 'the great disadvantages attendant upon its highly irritating fqualities.I had ascertained that when corrosive sublimate pre- cipitates albumen, the precipitate is not, as had been generally 'supposed, an albuminate of mercury, that is to say, a combination of albumen as an acid with merdary as a base; in other words, 'that the albumen does not displact" the chloride from its combi- ,nation, but that the bichloride of mercury retains its properties intact, the albumen being loosely associated with it, in a species of solid solution, if I may so speak.Further, I had found that this precipitate, even after drying, is capable of being dissolved in the serum of the blood, -and that the solution in blood serum is powerfully anti- .septic,while not irritating.I proposed and brought before you a new dressing in the shape of what was termed the sero- sublimate gauze, charged with a solution of corrosive sublimate -in the serum of the blood.This gauze gave very satisfactory re- sults, both in my own hands and in those of surgeons in places -so far distant as Poland and Spain.Nevertheless, it was not all -that could be desired by any means; it was somewhat harsh mechanically; it was not very absorbent, a serious defect, and ,,one of the materials of which it was made, the serum of horse's blood, was not always easily obtainable.I was, therefore, well edisposed to look for something superior.A few weeks after that communication was made to the Society, ,a firm of manufacturing chemists, Messrs. Gibbs, CuXson and Co. wrote to me saying that they had found that if chloride of am- monium or sal-ammoniac in quantity equal to one-fifth part of the weight of the bichloride of mercury was added to the mixture .,ofbichloride of mercury and blood serum, the result was a much 'more fluid preparation than I had obtained.If I used a pre- paration of 1 part of bichloride of mercury to 100 of blood serum, 1 got a thiek liquid somewhat difficult to diffuse in gauze.They "therefore suggested that by adding sal-ammoniac in that propor- tion, I should get a much more workable arrangement.On con- sulting chemical works, I found that one-fifth of sal-ammoniac was exactly sufficient to produce with bichloride of mercury 'the salt long known to chemists as sal-alembroth, a double salt of 'bichloride of mercury and chloride of ammonium.I naturally ,wished to ascertain whether this addition of sal-ammoniac would (ampair or even destroy the antiseptic properties of the bichloride of mercury.I therefore made experiments on the point, and I found that the sal-ammoniac associated in the form of a double .-saltwith the bichloride of mercury did not by any means impair Kits antiseptic properties; on the contrary, it improved them, so cfar, at least, as concerned that which we have to deal with as sur- geois, an albuminous fluid like the serum of the blood.Sal-alem- 4roth and bichloride of mercury proved to be exactly equivalent -weight for weight as antiseptics in such a fluid.Each