“Great theologians, such as a Calvin or a Jonathan Edwards, were they recalled to life, could discourse as learnedly as ever of predestination and free will; great preachers, as a Beecher or a Spurgeon, could stir our souls and warm our hearts as of old; great jurists, as a Justinian or a Marshall, could expound the same principles of law which hold good for all time; great forensic orators, as a Burke or a Webster, could convince us by the same arguments and arouse us by the same invectives or the same eloquence that made our fathers willing captives to their silver tongues. But to-day, so rapid has been our surgical progress, a Velpeau, a Sir William Ferguson, or a Pancoast, all of whom have died within the last thirty years, could not teach modern surgical principles nor perform a modern surgical operation. Even our every-day surgical vocabulary—staphylococcus, streptococcus, infection, immunity, antisepsis and asepsis, toxin and antitoxin—would be unintelligible jargon to him; and our modern operations on the brain, the chest, the abdomen, and the pelvis would make him wonder whether we had not lost our senses, until, seeing the almost uniform and almost painless recoveries, he would thank God for the magnificent progress of the last half-century, which had vouchsafed such magical, nay, such almost divine, power to the modern surgeon.” THE SURGERY OF WAR One of the immediate consequences of the introduction of the antiseptic method has been a remarkable mitigation of the horrors of war. Our recent war with Spain has proved, and the present military operations in the Philippines and of the British in South Africa will still further prove, its advantages. Witness a little book written by Professor von Esmarch, of Kiel, Germany, with the apt title, _The Fight of Humanity Against the Horrors of War_; with an appendix, entitled, “The Samaritan on the Battle-field.” One of the most valuable means for the preservation of human life is carried by every soldier in a modern civilized army as a part of his regulation outfit, a “First Aid Package” for the treatment of any wound or injury; and one of the most valuable and interesting papers read before the American Surgical Association, at its meeting in Chicago in 1899, was by Professor Senn on the “First Aid Package.” This first aid package contains an antiseptic dressing, which can be applied to all but the gravest wounds for the purpose of preventing infection, which is the principal danger to life after accident or injury. The universal testimony of our surgeons in Cuba was that by its use most wounds were prevented from becoming infected, and, therefore, inflamed, and that the number of operations was greatly diminished by reason of its use. BACTERIOLOGY