Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/368

 JOHN B. MURPHY 345 recognized as the leading spirits in the surgery of the world. Of the little band who carried this banner, none other was so frequent and so original a contributor as Murphy, the country boy from Wisconsin, who had had to fight his way upward. That the abdomen could be explored provided only it was found clean and kept clean was the first truth discovered by these men. But in the abdomen are to be found many differ- ent structures. It was determined early that some of these could be operated on with reasonable safety. Others tradi- tion held to be less amenable to handling. One by one these were studied and their surgery established. In this experi- mentation, trial, and demonstration, no man has done all the work. Every man has made use of the ideas of his co-workers in determining the natural next step. And yet in these ad- ventures of discovery, leadership is accorded to Murphy, by his f eUow workers. An indirect effect of these improvements has been of great Talue to society. It was not feasible to go into the abdominal <5avity until asepsis could be guaranteed. The operating room, of course, must be aseptic. Every process carried on therein must be controlled and kept constantly on a basis of asepsis. It followed naturally that the ward would be cleaned up. The result is that the surgical ward is now the cleanest ward in snj hospital. The cleaner hospitals and the better general reputations which they now enjoy has greatly increased the use of the hospital and this in turn has multiplied their number. The liospital drains out of the home most of those who, through ill- ness, interfere seriously with the daily routine of the home. Having become cleaner the hospital is not in competition with Ihe home. Undertaking to perfect methods so that surgical relief could be found for maladies of the organs within the body cavities, an unexpected result has followed. The cleaner methods re- sulted in clean operating rooms; clean operating rooms were followed by clean surgical wards ; clean surgical wards have influenced the medical wards ; and the general reputation of