Lord Lister, the discoverer of antiseptic surgery / by C.J.S. Thompson.

  • Thompson, C. J. S. (Charles John Samuel), 1862-1943.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Lord Lister, the discoverer of antiseptic surgery / by C.J.S. Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE DISCOVERER OF ANTISEPTIC SURGERY CHAPTER I The Quaker Student—University College. THERE are many people to-day to whom the name of Lister is familiar and yet they have no clear idea either of the work he accomplished, or of the great debt humanity owes to his genius. Some think his fame rests on his surgical achievements or on the fact that he invented a new surgical dressing, but how many know of the years of patient toil, and profound study of a veritable agony of sympathy with sufferings which he was powerless to prevent, that led up to his discovery. Surgery before his time was a name of terror, but he made it a message of hope. There can be no doubt that Joseph Lister by divine providence did more to save life, to relieve pain, to obviate deformity, and to prevent mutilation, than any other man in the history of our race. Besides being a great pioneer, he introduced new principles which revolutionised the pathology of in¬ flammation and made rough and perilous ways smooth and certain. In the words of one of his contem¬ poraries, u he opened a new and beautiful door into the House of Health and gave his followers the passport and the key.’’ Some account of the life and the character of the