The Discovery of Antiseptics Joseph Lister The Discovery of Antiseptics

Ignaz Semmelweiss – a man born too early! Semmelweiss was an Austrian doctor in 1847 He was concerned by the death of healthy women from puerperal fever when they had had a baby He noticed women assisted by midwives were less likely to be infected than those delivered by medical students He believed it was something to do with the fact that medical students went straight from dissecting dead bodies to delivering babies without washing their hands- yeeugh!! He put up notices demanding everyone washed their hands! Everyone thought he was mad – why?

Joseph Lister Lister was a Scottish surgeon working in Glasgow His father pioneered the improvement of microscopes Lister read about Pasteur’s work on germ theory in 1861 He researched gangrene and infection

Why Carbolic? Lister made the connection between germs and infection/decay A colleague told him that carbolic was being used in Carlisle to treat sewage The smell of sewage was similar to gangrene-yeeugh!!

How did Lister use Carbolic? He carried out experiments and found that a thin mist of carbolic acid sprayed over the wound, followed by careful bandaging, limited infection.

Lister had the courage to fail He then took a risk! In 1865, an 11 year old boy was admitted to Lister’s hospital with a compound fracture of the leg. Lister should have amputated it. A carbolic soaked dressing was placed over the wound and the leg splinted and bandaged. The leg had healed within 6 weeks

How successful was Lister? Total amputations Died % who died 1864-66 (without antiseptics) 35 16 45.7 1867-70 (With antiseptics) 40 6 15.0

So how come other doctors were slow to follow Lister? Your turn – read source 16 page 139 and create a much more interesting spider diagram Why did they change their mind in 1878?

What were the results of Lister’s work? What is aseptic surgery? What 3 new measures were introduced to ensure absolute cleanliness?