| Show STUDENT LIFE cess peculiar to the disease This theory is today generally accepted and since the cause of the disease is known rapid progress ‘has been made in the treatment of such diseases ' Working along this same line Sir John Lister of Scotland has revolutionized surgery in the of antiseptic and establishment In antiseptic aseptic methods siirgery the destructive injurious organisms are killed by means of chemicals after they have gained entrance into the wound In aseptic surgery the germs are not allowed to enter the wound The revolution wrought by Lister can be appreciated only when we consider the sympathy with which surgeons now perform operations which before his time were regarded as unjustifiable The surgical infection which forty years ago was the dread of all surgeons has practically disappeared The hospitals today civil and military are robbed of the terrors which used to make them almost charnel houses The publication of medical literature and the formation of medical societies has aided materially the The only progress of medicine medical journal published in the jUnited States during the eighteenth century was the “Medical Repository” begun in 1797 Today there are several hundred such journals published in the United States The first medical society was the state medical society of Maryland formed in 1789 Today there is such a so ciety 133 in every state and territory and in the east in nearly every county The value of these journals and societies in disseminating medical knowledge cannot be over-estimat- ed The most conspicuous medical character in American history is undoubtedhr Benjamin Rush (1745-181He studied in America and abroad was a member of the Continental Congress and one of the signers of the Declaration of IndeHe ' was an extensive pendence writer on a variety of subjects pro3) fessional political and philosophdid extensive original work on nervous anatomy being one of the first investigators of the world along this line After him is named Rush Medical College of Chicago Other notably American characters are Ephraim McDowell of Danville Ky who is practically the father of modern abdominal surgery and to whom Americans and Europeans alike render all the honor that is his due Valentine Mott who did more work on the surgery of the vascular system that any other surgeon who has ever lived Oliver Wendell Holmes who was for a long time professor of anatomy in Harvard Medical College deserves mention because of his medical essays John R Cox who wrote in 1818 the first American text book of anatomy and Robley Dunglison noted for his Medical —P R M 3 Dictionary ical He ex-’o- |
