teacher. His first efforts in this direction were in Edinburgh and were characterized by the care with which he prepared his lectures and the attention he bestowed on his students and patients. Strangely enough, throughout his life, in spite of carefully laid plans, notes, and preparations, Lister seems always to have been terribly rushed to complete any address or lecture which he proposed giving when the time for delivering it arrived. One reason for this apparent unpunctuality may be found in the fact that his public utterances were almost always based on his own original research work, and as his experiments were continuously in operation he frequently held up a paper in order to finish experiments to be recorded in it. His laboratory work was conducted under the greatest difficulty. He had no separate, well-equipped room, with all the supposedly needful appliances. Much of his work was done in his own house, even in his consulting room. His researches led him into the fields of chemistry and cryptogamic botany, regions far afield from the engrossing labor of a most arduous surgical practice. He had to do considerable vivisection, and we trust that the letter which he wrote to Sir Henry Ponsonby, the Queen's private secretary, when requested by that functionary to make an authoritative statement "opposing" it will be widely read. It contains in a short summary the best and most logical statement of the benefits derived from vivisection and of the foolishness of its opponents. The story of how his experiments and investigations ultimately led him to the formulation of the principles of antiseptic surgery is too long to enter into here. It should be read by every one in the pages of the volume we are now considering. The relationship of his labors to those of Pasteur are fully gone into, and the beautiful acknowledgment by each of these two truly great men of the value of the work of the other forms an instructive picture of the highest type of intellectual community, of scientific aim and purpose. The great help Lady Lister accorded to her husband is touchingly recorded; and the various aspects of the hostility shown to Lister by his colleagues, sometimes from the inertia of conservatism, sometimes from pettier motives, is impartially described. Like most prophets his teachings received their most cordial reception elsewhere than among his fellow-countrymen. Now that he has passed away, his laurel wreath is nowhere more loudly acclaimed than in the localities wherein he at first met with his hardest rebuffs. The English medical profession is to be congratulated on its its acquisition of this thoroughly adequate biography of one of its greatest surgeons. FRANCIS R. PACKARD. LA SOCIÉTÉ FRANÇAISE D'HISTORIE DE LA MÉDÉCINE After an interruption of five years in its activities this distinguished organization has once more resumed its meetings. In no country has more genuine interest in the history of medicine been manifested by members of the profession than in France. The French historical school of medicine counts on its roll the names of many who have advanced our knowledge of the sub ject and stimulated interest in its study. Daremberg, Littré, Deseimeris, Dariot, Renouard, by their researches and writings have laid the whole world under obligation. Cabanes has written many volumes on medico-historical subjects with verve and wit, and his study of Marat and other medical personages of historic renown are invaluable. Lucien Nass in his "Curiosites HISTORICAL NOTES EXHIBITIONS AT THE CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION In connection with the meeting of the Classical Association under the Presidency of Sir William Osler in May last at Oxford, there was a Loan Exhibition of Early Scientific Instruments, which it is to be hoped will serve as a stimulus for others of a similar kind. Oxford University is peculiarly fortunate in its possession of much material of this sort, particularly that in the Orrery Collection; but even in the United States it would be possible to collect objects of the greatest interest, either from their antiquity or from the personal interest attached to them through their use by famous investigators, or from their design. The exhibition at Oxford consisted chiefly of astronomical, mathematical and physical apparatus, but it contained also some notable microscopes. In America there is too great a tendency to "junk" such articles; but if efforts were made, there could be gathered at very slight expense, collections for deposit in connection with our scientific and medical museums and libraries which would help to visualize our scientific progress and stimulate our interest in its history. At the meeting, Sir William Osler also presented what he termed "Illustrations of an attempt to collect a Bibliotheca prima in Science and Medicine" which he explained in the following way: "Faced with a bewildering variety and ever-increasing literature, how is the hardpressed student to learn I. The evolution of knowledge in any subject, and 2. The life and work of the men who made the original contributions? "So far as concerns science and medicine, an attempt is made to answer the question by the collection of a Bibliotheca prima, examples from which are here shown. The idea is to have in a comparatively small number of works the essential literature grouped about the men of the first rank, arranged in chronological order. "I have put out the editiones principes of twenty of such works. The fundamental contribution may be represented by a great Aldine edition, e. g., Aristotle, by the brief communication such as that of Darwin and Wallace in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, 1858, or by a three-page pamphlet of Roentgen. Plato... Hippocrates. 1513 1495-8 ... Theophrastus.. .1483 Plotinus.. Avicenna. Averrhoes... Copernicus. .1525 1499 1478 1492 Agricola.. 1556 The works given above are on exhibition. "From the card lists of Galen, Hippocrates, Vesalius, and Harvey, those interested will see the aim and scope of the collection." This is so splendid an example of the methods employed by Sir William to further scientific study and research that we feel it should be given the widest publicity in order to extend its sphere of usefulness. Elsewhere in this issue of the ANNALS Some of the achievements of the greatest of living Anglo-Saxon physicians are dealt with. The present example shows that he is still seeking further opportunities to improve our knowledge of the foundations of our art. |