Reference
- Lister, Joseph Lister, 1st Baron1827-1912
English surgeon, the "father of antiseptic surgery"
Lister was born in Upton, Essex, the son of the microscopist Joseph Jackson Lister. After graduating from London University in arts (1847) and medicine (1852), he became house surgeon at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. After holding chairs in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, he was elected president of the Royal Society (1895-1900). In addition to important observations on the coagulation of the blood and the microscopical investigation of inflammation, his great work was the introduction of his antiseptic system (1867), which revolutionized modern surgery.
His system was a development of the work of Louis Pasteur. Lister began soaking his instruments and surgical gauzes in carbolic acid, a well-known disinfectant. His early antiseptic work was primarily concerned with the treatment by surgery of compound fractures and tuberculous joints; both conditions would previously have been dealt with by amputation.
The procedures Lister developed made it possible for surgeons to open the abdominal, thoracic and cranial cavities without fatal infections resulting. He worked later in his life on the causes of wound infection and was an ardent advocate of the value of experimental science for medical and surgical practice. He was the first medical man to be elevated to the peerage...
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Perspectives
The Butchering Art
Winner, 2018 PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing Short-listed for the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize A Top 10 Science Book of Fall 2017,Publishers Weekly A Best History Book of 2017,The Guardian "Warning: She spares no detail!" --Erik Larson, bestselling author ofDead Wake InThe Butchering Art, the historian Lindsey Fitzharris reveals the shocking world of nineteenth-century surgery and shows how it was transformed by advances made in germ theory and antiseptics between 1860 and 1875. She conjures up early operating theaters--no place for the squeamish--and surgeons, who, working before anesthesia, were lauded for their speed and brute strength. These pioneers knew that the aftermath of surgery was often more dangerous than patients' afflictions, and they were baffled by thepersistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. At a time when surgery couldn't have been more hazardous, an unlikely figure stepped forward: a young, melancholy Quaker surgeon named Joseph Lister, who would solve the riddle and change the course of history. Fitzharris dramatically reconstructs Lister's career path to his audacious claim that germs were the source of all infection and could be countered by a sterilizing agent applied to wounds. She introduces us to Lister's contemporaries--some of them brilliant, some outright criminal--and leads us through the grimy schools and squalid hospitals where they learned their art, the dead houses where they studied, and the cemeteries they ransacked for cadavers. Eerie and illuminating,The Butchering Art celebrates the triumph of a visionary surgeon whose quest to unite science and medicine delivered us into the modern world.
Der Lister'sche Verband
Background information on English scientist and physician Joseph Lister is presented. Lister is best remembered for his transformation of nineteenth-century medicine, with the successful introduction of "antisepsis" into existing surgical procedures. The term antisepsis, from two Greek words meaning "against" and "rot," is the name given to the practice of systematically preventing the infection commonly associated with surgery by avoiding contamination. Information on Lister's early life and education is reviewed.
Joseph Lister: Surgeon & Pioneer | Told by Max Brooks | History at Home
- Joseph Lister: Surgeon & Pioneer | Told by Max Brooks | History at HomeJoseph Lister, a surgeon, who discovered the importance of using an antiseptic in the mid 19th century
Joseph Lister: Surgery Transformed
- Joseph Lister: Surgery TransformedJoseph Lister published his first paper in the BMJ in 1867 and carried on publishing in the journal for over 40 years, and now all of his articles can be accessed for free online in the BMJ archive.
Infection Control
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
Pasteur's theory about germs causing disease led Joseph Lister to use carbolic acid to kill germs, stop infection, and revolutionize medicine. Surgical garments and penicillin also help defeat infection.
Online Resources
- The Classic: On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of SurgeryThis Classic Article is a reprint of the original work by Baron Joseph Lister, On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery. An accompanying biographical sketch of Baron Joseph Lister is available at DOI 10.1007/s11999-010-1319-3 . The Classic Article is ©1867 and is reprinted with courtesy from Lister J. On the antiseptic principle in the practice of surgery.
- Joseph Lister (1827-1912): a pioneer of antiseptic surgery remembered a century after his death.Joseph Lister was a remarkable British surgeon who pioneered principles of antisepsis. He died 100 years ago after devoting his life to developing and promoting safe, antiseptic surgery. In the 1800 s as many as 80% of all operations resulted in infection but many people refused to accept the true nature of infection, believing instead that the deaths were coincidental. Lister became familiar with the work of Pasteur while working in Glasgow. He recognized the truth in Pasteur's work and in 1867 Lister published his landmark paper 'On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery' in the British Medical Journal. It proved to be a turning point in healthcare.
- Joseph Lister: Surgeon, Teacher, PioneerJoseph Lister is often referred to as ‘the father of modern surgery’ [1]. The implementation and success of many of his ideas resulted in the ability to break through many of the preexisitng boundaries of surgery. Before Lister and his work on antiseptic methods in the prevention and treatment of surgical infection, the mortality rate following surgery in the nineteenth century was more than 50%. Infection was seen as an expected and natural part of wound healing in the post operative course, with the often fatal gangrene being the most feared [2,3]...
Surgery and Infection Control
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowSepsis was more dangerous than surgery itself. Alexander Gordon noticed that women treated by a midwife away from a hospital were less likely to develop childbed fever. Joseph Lister improved post-surgery survival rates using carbolic acid to sterilize equipment.