Foremost, however, among the beneficent reforms which have followed in the wake of bacteriology must be placed the antiseptic treatment of wounds, or Listerism, as it is now universally designated in recognition of its renowned champion, the former President of the Royal Society. "Lister comprend," in the words of Dr. Roux, "que les complications des plaies sont dues aux germes microbiens venus du dehors et il imagine les pansements antiseptiques. Avec l'antiseptie commencent les temps nouveaux de la chirurgie." It only remains to add that, with the modesty characteristic of a great man, its brilliant author delights in repeating how any good which he may have been permitted to do he owes entirely to the inspiration which he received from the labours of Louis Pasteur. But if the Victorian era has been productive of so many important applications of bacteriology to commerce and medicine, this period has been also fraught with results of the highest moment in the progress of hygiene. The terms of intimacy, so to speak, which we have been now able to establish with bacteria has enabled us to discover details of their life and habits which before were shrouded in mystery. Their distribution in air has led to renewed endeavours on the part of sanitary authorities to procure efficient ventilation in our hospitals and public institutions; dust has acquired a fresh horror since it has been shown how disease germs may be disseminated by its means; whilst the important part which flies and lice may play in the spread of epidemics has opened up a new field for research, and made us conscious of a fresh source of danger in our daily life. The general public, however, is hardly yet fully alive to the capacity for mischief possessed and exercised by the common house-fly. True, it is universally execrated and regarded as a tiresome attendant upon the summer months, but it is not usually considered in any more serious light. That however, the comparative indulgence with which this homely insect pest has been treated is decidedly misplaced and fraught with danger to health, the researches of numerous scientists have now conclusively proved. As long ago as the year 1888 Professor Celli showed that the germs of consumption, anthrax, and typhoid fever could pass through the digestive organs of flies and reappear in the excreta of the latter not only alive but in full possession of their disease-producing powers. Dr. Sawtschenko made similar experiments with cholera germs. Healthy flies were placed under glass shades and fed with broth in which these micro-organisms were growing, and the latter were not only subsequently recovered from the digestive organs of the flies but also from their excreta in a living and virulent condition.