That the system of treating wounds devised by Joseph Lister, of Edinburgh, is actively engaging the attention of surgeons throughout the world is evidenced by the frequent references to it in medical articles, and by the attempts made to carry it out in numerous hospitals in this country and in Europe. The constant presence at the Edinburgh Infirmary of representative surgeons from all parts of the world, especially from Germany, where Lister's s}'stem has been very extensively adopted, points

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... o his wards as the present centre of surgical interest in Europe. Most extraordinary results have followed this treatment in the hands of those who have faithfully carried out Lister's ideas and who have worked in accordance with the rules on which the method is founded ; will almost certainly be attended with failure ; let us, therefore, briefly review these. Pasteur, Tyndall, Lister, and others have proved by extended series of experiments that atmospheric air, in even the most healthy and favorable localities, contains great numbers of minute germs or organisms in a state of great activity, and capable of proliferation with astonishing rapidity. As seen under high powers of the micro-