SOME ESSEX DOCTORS.
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"bottles until needed; then the surgeon carried the whipcord
"or silk, which he used for tying up the arteries, in the pocket
"of his coat. As the operation proceeded microbes were
"introduced into the body of the patient in so many ways
"and by so many different agents—by the surgeon's hands,
"his instruments, ligatures and swabs—that when all was
"finished, what under modern conditions would have been
"an aseptic wound, was then unknowingly heavily con-
"taminated with germs. When the surgeon paid his visits
"he often used the same probe for all the patients, neither
"sterilizing nor boiling it between the cases. Instead of cleaning
"out the wound with sterilized swabs of cotton wool, which
"could then be burnt, ordinary marine sponges were used and
"simply washed in soap and water."
Lister changed all this and, incredible as it may sound, often
in face of determined opposition from his medical brethren.
From these and other causes it is said that 75 per cent. of surgical
cases succumbed to the operation. Not content with his fight
for cleanliness and freedom from contamination Lister went
further by so treating the wounds with carbolic and other
antiseptics that gangrene and septicaemia were practically
eradicated. Into the medical side I am not competent to enter,
but it will be found fully set out in Sir Rickman Godlee's book,
which I again commend to you.
Lister is dead, but his beneficent discoveries and inventions
live, and are responsible for the salvation of thousands of
lives which would otherwise have been sacrificed. Let us honour
and cherish the memory of this worthy son of Essex.
Sir Morell Mackenzie.
I have left myself but little time, so can only give the salient
facts in the life of this Essex-born celebrity. He was born
7 July, 1837, in the High Road, Leytonstone, in a house
at the corner of Park Road, the eldest son of Stephen Mackenzie
and Margaret Harvey, his wife. He went to school at Wal-
thamstow House in Shernhall Street, Walthamstow, under
Dr. Glennie Greig. From this school he was called home in
1851 when 14 years of age; his father having been thrown out
of his old-fashioned doctor's gig and falling with his head against
the kerb stone in front of his own house died without recovering