Lister, 1827-1912 : a house surgeon's memories / [St. Clair Thomson].

  • Thomson, St. Clair, 1859-1943.
Date:
[1937]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Lister, 1827-1912 : a house surgeon's memories / [St. Clair Thomson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ing the patient and finding that pulse and temperature were normal, Lister decided to go on with the operation. The patient died a few days later from congestion and oedema of the lungs. The following week the Professor chose as a subject for his clinical lecture “The Medical Care of Surgical Cases.” Taking this particular case as a text, he delivered a carefully prepared lecture in which he expressed his deep regret that he had not given more attention to the warning of his house surgeon. Few in such a position would have been so magnanimous. Just as his pioneer work on the drainage of wounds never obtained the consideration it deserved, neither did his laborious investigations in regard to the preparation and use of cat-gut ligatures. Without these twro aids, chiefly perfected by Lister, our modern methods would have been retarded and imperfect. His Scientific Spirit. Lister was imbued. I need hardly say, with a truly scientific mind. He urged the necessity of experimental and laboratory research. In 1875 Queen Victoria, to whom only one side of the question had been presented, wrote requesting him to take action for the suppression of vivisection. Although he held a Court appointment he had the courage to decline an invitation he could not conscientiously accept. He wrote to her private secretary as follows : I should deeply regret that I cannot see my way to comply with this request were I not persuaded that my doing so would not promote the real good of the community, which I know to be Her Majesty’s only object in the matter.” Lister s Humanity. Another trait of his character was his invariable gentleness and sympathy with the humblest or roughest of his hospital patients. He seldom referred directly to a patient as “a case,” but introduced his remarks with such kindly terms as “this poor fellow,” or “this good woman,” or “this little chap.” To demonstrate this, there is hung up in our library a letter written by Lister to the House Surgeon who preceded me, the late Dr. R. G. Lynam of Oxford. It will be noted that this letter is entirely concerned with the interests of his students and of a hospital patient for whom he shows a touching consideration. He sent the letter to the hospital by special messenger; there was no telephone in these days.^ In reading his ipsissima verba you will not “see Lister plain,” but you will come into close touch with his noble character. (See facsimile.) The letter was signed but, like nearly all his letters, had been written by his wife, who had adopted such a similar caligraphy that many people did not notice the difference. It is interesting to visit the surgical block of the great hospital in Rome, the Policlinico Umberto I. {Fig. 11.) In the tympanum over the main entrance there is a group showing the figures of dis¬ tinguished surgeons, and the central one is that of Lister operating