JOHN B, MUBPHY 343 chow was teaching could not be said in 1879 to be for the people. The people were receiving services based upon the theorizing of the past which in turn had come out of the mys- ticism of a stUl earlier period. In 1879 Koch laid the foundation for bacteriology by per- fecting the methods of growing bacteria in the laboratory. It was in 1883 that Lister applied the truths of bacteriology to the everyday work of the surgeon. It was then that the sci- ences of bacteriology and pathology started on the road to- ward democracy. Within a few years they were being made use of in the everyday work of the everyday surgeon. John Benjamin Murphy began the study of medicine in 1876, graduated in 1879, finished his hospital service in 1880 and, in that year, began the private practice of surgery. He was taking up his Uf e work in this period in which the founda- tion of modem medical science was being laid. He began his service just as the results of the preparatory work were be- ginning to flow into the daily life of the community. There are those who hold that Dr. Murphy's chief work has been as a research student, a discoverer and applier of new methods. There are others who hold that his great service has been as one who carried the revelations of science into the lives of the people. There have been hospitals for a thousand years more or less. Until 1880, however, the hospital developed along its medical side alone. The surgical wards were regarded as a menace. From them pus infections were constantiy overflow- ing into the medical wards. A surgical ward was looked on much as a contagious disease ward is now regarded. What to do with infected wards was a great question — and all wards were infected. At that time surgery had but a limited field. Broken limbs were set, dislocated joints were reduced, maimed members were amputated, arteries were tied up — if they were outside of the body cavities. Generally speaking, surgery essayed to relieve certain conditions in the legs, arms, neck, and even in the trunk, provided it was not necessary to enter any body cavity to do so.
