The Goderich Signal-Star, 1967-05-04, Page 20h AGgde ,.0
4,1 nae -Staff, ThUVeclaY, May 4, 1,967
Antisepsis Accepted
Milestones In $edicine Erected By Lister,
(By G. MacLeod Ross)
... the enemy, then Des.
troy,'
Judged by the number of single
and multiple centenarie5'"`"being
celebrated this' year, it would
seem that 1967 'must have been
a magic. number alQhg The long
corridors of history. This col.
;Ural has, tried to salute a few of
them:- Dunkirk, Waterloo, Kip.
ling,,Westminster Abbey and Net.
ley Rospital. For one of these
need apology be offered, for who•
the, they concern great men,
+ tarda
great deeds, or great w ,
_key_are all worthy of recall;
they , all carry a lessbni. they
all enable us to learn what we
lacked before, for the good which
men do, is oft interred with
their bones.
When we remember Joseph
.Lister in this m ,nth and year,
it is not because he was either
born 'or died in 1867, but rather
that his long fight against pre.
judice and bigotry was at last
acknowledged by the acceptance
of his article presenting his tech.
nique of antisepsis in that re.
liable and progressive medical
publication: The 'Lancet'.
Stated in the baldest terms,
Lister employed carbolic acid to
kill the bacteria which caused
gangrene and blood poisoning, •
so often resulting from operative
surgery. , Perhaps Lister's suc.
cess was due to his industrious
curiosity. Th e ho s and hours
of, staring at and ex mining spec.
imens under s microscope.,
Then he read.of Lou (Pasteur's
discovery that germs in; the air
cause putrefaction. They hadboth
been staring down their .respec.
tive microscopes simultaneous..
but Pasteur, the brilliantex.
perimentalist, devised a way- to
test •itis -theory and -to•-Prove -itY-
Lister's long hours of ` trying
to understand what his miscro.
scope revealed, enabled him to
accept Pasteur's theory at once.
Thereafter he looked for an
tidote which would destroy
the germsrPr'hus it may be said
in all fairness, that Pasteur found
the enemy, while Lister destroy.
ed it.
thereafter Lister and Pasteur,
in their respective fields,found
themselves opposed in their res.
pective fields by their prejudiced
and , bigoted professional peers.
Each suffered rebuffs, even cal•
umny, but nothing stopped their
proselytising, yet it was se''.
eral years before the principle
of antisepsis was. accepted by
the medical profession..
Only to the enlightened few was
it manifest than surgery would
.never be the same again. As
proof of his debt to Pasteur, Lis.
ter wrote; "Permit meto thank
you cordiallyfor having shown me
the trpth of the'theory of germs
of putrefaction by your brilliant
., researches, and for having given
me the single principle whichhas
made the antiseptic system a suc.
......,, _ _ �..... _ _,.�........._ _,..
Lister, was born in •London
in 1827, of Quaker' parents. His
father, a wine merchant, was also
a distinguished `amatueur scient.
ist, who made and perfected his
own microscopes1 one of which
he bequeathed to his on. Joseph
followed in the Quaker tradition of
Industry, education, good works
and boundless curiosity about the
natural world. As. a teenager he
studied anatomy by disassemb.
•ling and assembling the'skeltonso
of animals. He graduated In med.
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•i1
icine at King's College, London
hospital at age 25,
He already used the micros.
cope to study gangrenous Wounds'
and ' made observations QB the
early , stages of.inflam matiop. But
he had. his ear •to the ground,
SQ• that when Louts Pasteur 'dem.
onstrated that. it was sub,visible
living
things which were tie real
cause of fermentation,' and later,
that .germs, in the air bacteria.
caused putrefaction, Lister re,
cognized the enemy. It remained
to devise a way to destroy it.
It was while he was professor of
surgery at, Glasgow University
(1859 to 1869) that Pasteur's writ.
ings.unleash,e,d whatLisicr.calle
d.
'a flood of light.'
Having read in the pressthat
carbolic. acid had been used suc.
cessfully to' 'purify' sewage at
Chariisle, Listerproceededto'ity
it as his germ -killer. Applied to
wounds and dressings, his first
triumph' came in 1856. He treat.
eco a compound fracture of a boy/,s,leg. Under his treatment a scab
b
formed and the wound healed. In
the next 18 months, in eight out
of 10 cases both limb and life
were saved. From then on sur.
gery was. never to be the same
again.
From 1867 to 1876 he was pro.
lessor of clinical surgery at Ed.
inburgh University, moving back
in 18?7 to his alma mater, King's
College hospital. Alone anibng
medical schools, King's had the
courage and foresight' to invite,
Lister t o join their staff at a
time when his ideas were.opposed
n
not only in London but in Edin.
burgh and Glasgow.
This year the students of his
old hospital reconstructed an
operation performed under Lis.
ter's technique. The patient lies
on a couch in the drawing' room
of his home, On a table by his
head stands, a steam pressured
carbolic vapour spray, operated
by a student, Next, in frock coat
and cuffs turned back the anaes.
thetist with. a glass toppered
bottle of chloroform, sprinkled
drops onto a' piea ofgauze under
the patient's nose. A third assist.
it
ant stands ready with,the vomit
bowl, while the 3rsurgeon, with
rherery. the -"sleeves` of'lilt-frod1
coat turned back, stands ready
with the scalpel. There,were no
rubber gloves, no masks, no
overalls and just the light of day
through the window. Most sur.
geons justtook off their top hats,
pushed up their sleeves and got
on with it.
Lister pioneered the heat ster.'
ilizatton of instruments, absor.
bable ligatures and the drainage
tube. His medicine chest- made
of wood. which is reminiscent of
Dr. Tiger Dunlop's "Twelve
Apostles'', h,olds only some ten''
,bottles. The picture makes two of
the labels readable: Paregoric
Elixir and Tincture of Rhubarb.
Here- then was a milestone in
cal history. In one of his
lett dated 187,{1, * Lister goes
into t• e minutest detail of the bac.
terium Which sours milk and of
moulds, ~' including penicillium;
"the commonest . of ,all blue.,
Pasteur Recalled
moulds, as for instance on mouldy
paste or preserves is the Pen,
cillium Glaucum, which forms
,,tassels of
threads....."
1 t was fifty years later that
Alexander Fleming dis.cov'ered
blue spores or that what he called-4pentcillin',
produced by such moulds, could
kill bacteria. Another medical
m•ilestt n.e leading to modern an.
tt»iotics
SUPPORT
Goderich
:ommunity Concert Assoc.
AY 1 to6 6
COMMUNITY CONCERTS GROW IN
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POPUILARITY EACH YEAR
Plan To Join February 28 to March 5
......-... .
Through the efforts of the Goderich Community Concert Association, residents
of Goderich, the surrounding Townships and .other communities in Huron County ,are
afforded the opportunity to attend fine concerts.
Entertainment is designed to proyide, music that will appeal to all.
Therefore the Municipal Counc& of the Town of Goderich has directed that
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DR. FRANK MILLS
Mayor
ro
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