scourges as pyaemia and hospital gangrene were rife in all
of them. In the chief hospital of Paris, which for centuries claimed
pre-eminence for its medical faculty, the latter disease raged for 200
years without intermission: 25 per cent. of those entering its doors
were found to have died, and the mortality after certain operations was
more than double this figure. Erichsen, who published in 1874 the
statistics of deaths after operations, quoted 25 per cent. in London as
satisfactory, and referred to the 60 per cent. of Paris as not
surprising. In military practice the number of deaths might reach the
appalling figure of 80 or 90 per cent. What was so tragic about this
situation was that it was precisely hospitals, built to be the safeguard
of the community, which were the most dangerous places in the case of
wounds and amputations. In 1869 Sir James Simpson, the famous discoverer
of chloroform, collected statistics of amputations. He took over 2,000
cases treated in hospitals, and the same number treated outside. In the
former 855 patients (nearly 43 per cent.) died, as it seemed, from the
effects of the operation; in the latter only 266 cases (over 13 per
cent.) ended fatally. He went so far as to condemn altogether the system
of big hospitals; and under his influence a movement began for breaking
them up and substituting a system of small huts, which, whether tending
to security or not, was in other ways inconvenient and very expensive.
About the same time certain other reforms, obvious as they seem to us
since the days of Florence Nightingale, were tried in various places,
tending to more careful organization and to greater cleanliness; but
till the cause of the mischief could be discovered, only varying results
could be obtained, and no real victory could be won. Hence a radical
policy like Simpson's met with considerable support. In days when many
surgeons submitted despairingly to what they regarded as inevitable, it
was an advantage to have any one boldly advocating a big measure; and
Simpson had sufficient prestige in Edinburgh and outside to carry many
along with him. But before 1869 another line of attack had been
initiated from Glasgow, and Lister was already applying principles which
were to win the battle with more certainty of permanent success.

Glasgow was no more free from these troubles than other great towns; in
fact it suffered more than most of them. With its rapid industrial
development it had al