106
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
founded the system of antiseptic surgery, a system which is
said to have saved more lives than war has destroyed.
Sir Michael Foster said of my uncle in a speech made at
Toronto in 1897, "in early life Lister belonged to a society the
members of which called all men friends, and now in turn because
of his inestimable beneficence and service to mankind, men,
the world over, call him friend."
The remainder of my uncle's active life was mainly occupied
with the application of the principle of antiseptic surgery, and
in perfecting and simplifying the system.
In 1877, he and his wife settled in London, and the house
he took in Park Crescent, Regents Park, remained his home
until his death in 1912.
The holidays those united comrades took together were
often spent abroad, and were largely given to the enjoyment
of scenery, to the study of wild flowers, and, later, to the study
of birds. My uncle began to learn the notes of birds after he
was fifty, and by dint of perseverance, and with my father's
aid, he gradually became familiar with the songs and notes
of most of our birds, and a keen delight they gave him.
The love of flowers was his always. From each expedition
abroad a collection of wild flowers would be brought home,
carefully pressed in paper medicated by being dipped in a weak
solution of corrosive sublimate ; this had the effect of warding
off insects and mould. Each specimen had a label, written
usually in my aunt's clear hand, giving the name, locality and
date of gathering. We used to look forward to the pleasure
of seeing these collections on their return, finding, beside the
beauty and interest of the plants themselves, that they formed
journals to which the incidents of travel could be linked. We
now have these flower-journals, recording holidays in France,
Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Italy and Spain, and the flowers
are in as perfect a condition as when they were first pressed.
A few words may be said with regard to these Essex plants
gathered by my uncle eighty years ago. They bring home
to us how entirely conditions have changed in this neighbourhood
since that time. We shall not now find Whitlow Grass or
Dyers Rocket on Upton walls, nor Rushes and Branched Bur-reed
in Palsey Lane, now known as St. Mary's Road. Marsh Marigolds
no longer grow by the Iron Bridge, Blackwall, nor in Plaistow