Joseph Jackson Lister The father of antiseptic surgery

Joseph Lister was born April 5th 1827 in West Ham England his father Joseph senior was a pioneer of achromatic object lenses for the compound microscope and also a wine merchant Lister became a medical student and graduated with honors in 1852 he became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and house surgeon at University College Hospital in the same year Lister went to Edinburgh Scotland where he became an assistant to James Syme at the University of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and was later a surgeon at the infirmary in 1856 which led to becoming a professor of surgery at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow in 1860 In the Victorian age many patients would develop infections and die shortly afterwards even if the surgery was a success most surgeons believed that it was due to bad air that caused infections in wounds Many surgeons during this time period would wear the same blood covered clothes for surgeries and did wash their hands they assumed that the bloody clothes was a social statement that they were experienced surgeons

Lister knew that the surgery was not what caused death but what happened after and wondered what could be done to prevent it He compared patients with simple fractures and compound fractures and determined that all infections mainly came from open wounds Lister started hygienic practices before conducting surgery making sure to wash his hands and to wear fresh clean clothes Lister read research papers by Louis Pasteur a French chemist which showed that fermentation and food spoilage could be caused by micro-organisms Pasteur also gave three methods to eliminate micro-organisms Filtration Exposure to heat and Exposure to chemical solutions Lister used this information to conduct experiments which confirmed Pasteur’s work and this was what lead to Listers motivation to develop antiseptic techniques for wounds Lister had also read about the treatment of sewage with carbolic acid and how it reduced disease among the population of people in England

Lister learned that carbolic acid was safe on human skin and started to wash his hands and instruments with the acid and also would spray the room with carbolic acid before and during surgery which led to a better mortality rate Lister made people that worked under him put on clean gloves and wash their hands with five percent carbolic acid before entering the surgery room Some of his new techniques included using carbolic acid on silver wire to tie broken bones together and the use of a rubber drainage tube which was used on Queen Victoria Queen Victoria later gave him the title of Sir Joseph Lister which eventually led to him becoming Baron Lister of Lyme Regis Lister was awarded the Copley Medal in 1902 for his influence in modern practice of surgery Lister died on February 10th 1912 at the age of 84

Joseph Lister and his wife Agnus never had children In 1879 Listerine mouthwash was named after him for his works in antisepsis Two postage stamps were issued in 1965 to honor his contributions to antiseptic surgery

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/josephlister http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/joseph-lister https://www.famousscientists.org/joseph-lister https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Lister-Baron-Lister-of-Lyme-Regis