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Lister, then of Glasgow, Scotland, conceived the idea that ;
if these microbic growths had the power to change the chem-
ical qualities of fluids in which they grew, why might they
not grow in the secretions of w^ounds and change the char-
acter of these secretions in such a way as to hinder the heal-
ing of the wounds. In those days very many of the persons
operated upon for tumors, and many of the persons who
were wounded by accident, died of surgical fever, or wound
fever, as it was termed. Mr. Lister began in 1859, or about
that time, makijig efforts to exclude micro-organisms from

the secretions of wounds. He sterilized (antiseptics were al-
ready known) his hands, his instruments, everything which
was to come in contact with the wound ; sterilized the skin
of the patient in the region, and then sterilized the air in
which he operated by a spray of dilute carbolic acid, and
then finally closed the wound in such a way as to exclude
micro-organisms, and, to his surprise, wounds so treated
healed without a drop of pus, a thing unknown to surgeons
before that time. When Lister published these results in
1865 they startled the medical world. Immediately, we might
say, the study of micro-organisms was transferred to the
medical profession and the principal interest in micro-organ-
isms has been with the medical profession since. As this
matter was studied it was found that Mr. Lister was right.
Many men made failures, but many men made successes, and
it was soon found that without micro-organisms no pus was
formed. Some even will go so far as to say that without
micro-organisms no inflammations occur. This is going a
little too far, but in the practical sense in surgery it is true.
The inflammations that result from wounds without the
presence of micro-organisms are so slight that they are only
suf^cient to prompt the healing process and are not inflam-
mations that are to be avoided ; they are beneficent, and in
the sense of interfering with the healing of wounds are not
inflammations. However, we may produce inflammations by
other means than micro-organisms—by other irritants.
Now, during these years the plans for the study of micro-
organisms were exceedingly rude. It was with the utmost
difficulty that species of micro-organisms could be separated
so that we could know whether we were growing this species,
or that species, or a mixture of species, of micro-organisms

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