Page:The third Huxley lecture.pdf/9

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the Council of Charing Cross Hospital did me the great honour of asking me to deliver the third of the Lectures instituted by them in memory of Huxley, the illustrious former pupil of their school, at the same time conveying their desire that the subject of it should be my own work, I at first reluctantly declined, on the ground that what I had done had been for the most part already published. But when the Dean, who assured me that he expressed the unanimous wish of his colleagues, urged me to reconsider my decision, I felt unable to refuse compliance with a request so very kindly made. It also occurred to me that, as my papers are scattered through a variety of media of publication, extending over a pretty long period, the earlier ones especially being probably little known to the present generation, it might perhaps be not without interest for me to refer on this occasion to some of the more salient of such observations as bear more or less directly upon the Antiseptic System of Surgery, while I should at the same time be complying with a wish that has been expressed that I should give some indication of the circumstances that led me to that subject.