Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/181

 ii s. v. F EB. 24, 191-] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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borough of Ripon. This takes the place of an earlier structure which had become ruinous, and the apex is finished with ornamental ironwork surmounted by a gilded horn, symbolical of the town, and serving as a vane.

(See ; Kelly's Directory of the West Hiding of Yorks,' 1904.) T. SHEPHERD.

The statue of Ebenezer Elliott at Sheffield (see US. Iv. 361) was the work, not of Barnard, but of Nevill Xorthey Burnard (1818-1878), for whom see' 'D.N.B.' Lander's poem on the ordering of this statue by the working-men of Sheffield was first printed in The Examiner, 8 Jan., 1853. In a foot-note to his ' Satire on Satirists ' he ^aid :

" The Corn-law rhymer, as he condescends to style himself, has written sonnets which may be ranked among the noblest in our language."

STEPHEN WHEELER.

If " elsewhere " is intended to include the oversea Dominions, it may be of interest to note that there is a statue of Robert Burns in Ballarat, one of Australia's golden cities. Ballarat has been called the " city of statues." Its main thoroughfare, Sturt Street, might almost be said to be incon- veniently crowded with them.

J. F. HOGAX.

Royal Colonial Institute, Northumberland Avenue.

Supplementing MR. PAGE'S information re Burns memorials, I would mention that the Greek Temple on the Calton Hill, Edin- burgh, is now quite empty, the statue and relics having been removed to the City Museum, City Chambers, High Street. A separate room is kept for them.

Opposite Dumfries, on the other side of the Kith, is the Maxwelltown Observatory, with a museum containing a large number of Burns relics, several plaster busts, and a death CHARLES S. BURDON.

LORD LISTER, THE FOUNDER OF MODERN SURGERY. The death of Lord Lister on Saturday, the 10th inst., in his 85th year, calls for a note, for by the introduction of antiseptic and aseptic methods of operating I and treating wounds he has saved countless ' lives. He was also the first man in England to perform a painless operation under the influence of ether. The Daily Telegraph, in its biographical article of the 12th inst.. relates that " it was on the 12th of August, 1865. Lister made his first experiment as to |

the cause of inflammation in open wounds." He had gradually come to the conclusion that this inflammation was to be accounted for by the invasion of minute organisms or germs from without. " It is not the mere air as such,'" he said to himself, " that is antagonistic to the process of healing a wound, but those organized germs which are uni- versally disseminated in the world around us ; bacteria are the cause of the inflammation."

On this 12th of August he made the first trial of his method in a case of compound fracture, and after the operation the wounds healed satisfactorily. Then other trials followed, until at last the great surgeon was convinced that he was right. Failures now ceased.

" The surgeon's scourge had disappeared ; pyaemia, hospital gangrene, erysipelas, and te- tanus in their epidemic form, became things of the past."

In 1909 ' The Collected Papers of Joseph, Baron Lister,' were published in two volumes by the Clarendon Press.

Queen Alexandra's message of condolence to the late eminent surgeon's family contains these words :

" Lord Lister's name will ever be honoured and gratefully remembered as that of the greatest benefactor to suffering humanity throughout the world." A. N. Q.

THE HENRY MAYHEW CENTENARY. Among the many honoured names of men born in 1812, that of Henry May hew will scarcely be forgotten ; not only as that of a great pioneer of English comic journalism, but, better still, as being, in the words of the ' Ency. Brit.,' " credited with being the first to ' write up ' the poverty side of London life from a philanthropic point of view." He married, in 1844, Jane, the elder daughter of Douglas Jerrold, a cir- cumstance not mentioned in the ' D.N.B.' It might be asked whether, had this union taken place a few years earlier, Henry Mayhew would have been so quietly " ousted " from the co-editorship of Punch. But probably Douglas Jerrold had less influence in the internal politics of the paper than sometimes has been presumed. Mark Lemon appears to have been, from first to last, quite capable of " having his own way " without asking or following the advice of others. Horace Mayhew was for a time engaged to Mary Jerrold, a younger daughter, though he afterwards married some one else (about 1869).

Henry Mayhew died 25 July, 1887, having outlived not only his two younger brothers, but all, or nearly all, his early