Bennet Henry M D Wakley M R C S E (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. Original 10-1/2-inch quarto recently rebound in half burgundy leather (with gilt titling) over "Dutch marbled" boards. Includes Joseph Lister's (Esq., F.R.S.) three-part paper "On a new method of treating compound fracture, abscess, etc. with observations on the conditions of suppuration," as well as his "On the antiseptic principle in the practice of surgery." As head of the surgical wards at Glasgow's Royal Infirmary and Professor of Surgery in the university of Glasgow, Lister "was appalled by the 40 percent mortality rate among surgery patients, most of it caused by gangrene, erysipelas, septicemia, and other postoperative infections. After studying the problem, he came to believe that wound suppuration was a form of putrefaction and was confirmed in his belief by the writings of Pasteur, who had recently proved that putrefaction was a fermentative process caused by living microorganisms. Lister adopted carbolic acid as a weapon against microorganisms after learning of its efficacy in sewage treatment, and used it in 11 cases of compound fracture, 9 of which recovered. He then applied his antiseptic techniques to the treatment of abscesses with similar success. Lister described his remarkable achievements in this classic series of reports, his first work on the antiseptic principle in surgery." 774 pp.