Eight letters of Joseph (Lord) Lister to William Sharpey / by C. Robert Rudolf.

  • Joseph Lister
Date:
1933
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Eight letters of Joseph (Lord) Lister to William Sharpey / by C. Robert Rudolf. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    variance with what I should have expected was that of the ciliary action going on in water impregnated with carbonic acid, for I had found that “ aerated water ” which I am assured contains nothing but carbonic acid, causes arrestment of the pigmentary changes. But then it occurred to me that very probably the carbonic acid might arrest the ciliary action also if long enough applied, just as the pigmentary arrestment and development of inflammatory stagnation of the blood require a considerable time of the action of the carbonic acid. And so it turns out. I put four bits of mucous membrane from different parts of the mouth and oesophagus of a frog in a glass of cold water, and four corresponding bits in a bottle of aerated water, and left both for about two hours. At the end of that time I found ciliary action in every specimen from the plain water, and not a trace of such action in any of those from the aerated water, although the cilia were distinct ^enough. There was, however, a great disposition to desquamation of the epithelium cells in the latter (from the carbonic acid water). I have since repeated this experiment on another frog with the same result. So far then, as I have tried, any agent that causes pigmentary arrestment when applied to the web causes also ciliary arrestment, and that not destruction of tissue, but suspension of function. Now there can, I conceive, be no doubt that the cilia, or the cells which bear them, are truly 'paralysed, in these experi¬ ments, i.e., unable for the time being to act, and it is also perfectly clear that the effect is independent of nervous or any other influence from the rest of the body of the creature, for, as everyone knows, and as I saw abundantly in these experiments, the cilia continued to act after cells have been separated from the mucous membrane, unless you act upon them with one of these deleterious agents. The effect then is clearly a direct effect of the irritant on this form of extra vascular tissue. Do you not think that these simple experiments very much serve as experimenta crucis as regards the nature of the arrestment which irritants produce on the tissues, viz., that they paralyse. You see they do not in any way clash with yours, but it so happens that my former observations led me to try a set of agents which you had not employed. I see you found aether arrest the ciliary action ; and I do not doubt it would excite inflammation if applied to the web. Hoping you will excuse me for thus trespassing again on your attention, I remain, with kind regards to Miss •Colville, in which Agnes15 unites, Yours very truly, Joseph Lister. W. Sharpey, Esqr., M.D., F.R.S., etc., etc. 11, Rutland Street, Edinburgh, 28th June /58. My dear Dr. Sharpey, I heard the other day from Mr. Stokes to whom you forwarded my last bo you, and his reply was in all respects quite satisfactory. Many thanks to you for procuring me the information it contained.
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