Volume 1

Reminiscences of Lister and of his work in the wards of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 1860-1869 / by Sir Hector Clare Cameron.

  • Hector Clare Cameron
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reminiscences of Lister and of his work in the wards of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 1860-1869 / by Sir Hector Clare Cameron. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    by such occurrences to a man like Lister. More than once, as he entered his carriage at the gate, after visiting the wards, I have seen him deeply distressed and agitated. Before coming to Glasgow he had already earnestly studied the determining causes of inflammation and suppuration in wounds, and was well persuaded in his own mind that their prime cause was the decomposition of the blood and serum, brought about through the | influence of the atmosphere. He insisted on scrupu- lous cleanliness and in the frequent hand-washing of all who made or dressed wounds. By way of prophy- lactic treatment solutions of potassium or sodium sulphite were administered, as Polli of Milan had recommended, in frequent doses each day, to every patient admitted with a compound fracture or other severe lacerated wound. It was such patients chiefly, together with those on whom amputations were per- formed, whether primarily or secondarily with a view to saving their lives, that were attacked by these hos- pital diseases; they constituted the great bulk of anxious surgical practice at that date, for it must be understood that the range of surgery was comparatively limited. There was no abdominal, cranial, or thoracic surgery, if we except the occasional evacuation of pus from the thorax by means of cannula and trocar. The free opening of these body-cavities was not practised till long afterwards. Such procedures were rendered possible by the researches and practice of Lister, but he himself never performed these opera- tions while in Glasgow; they were still developments of the future.
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