Joseph Lister

@Scientists, Family and Childhood ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Joseph Lister was a British surgeon who was the founder of antiseptic medicine British Oxford University University College London Physicians Surgeons Scientists Aries Celebrities Joseph Lister was a British surgeon who was the founder of antiseptic medicine and a pioneer in preventive medicine. He is credited to have introduced the method of sterilizing surgical instruments with carbolic acid which greatly reduced the risk of post-operative infections in patients. Up until that time, it was generally believed that chemical damage from exposures to bad air was responsible for infections in wounds and doctors were not even required to wash their hands before performing surgeries. Lister read about the experiments in fermentation conducted by French chemist Louis Pasteur and conducted his own experiments to conclude that micro-organisms were responsible for the infections in patients. He set about trying to find an effective method of eliminating the micro-organisms by exposing them to strong chemicals. After extensive experimentation, he found an effective antiseptic in carbolic acid. He treated the surgical instruments and wounds of patients with the chemical and discovered that when the solution was swabbed on wounds, it remarkably reduced the incidence of gangrene. Excited by his findings, he published his results in ‘The Lancet’. He instructed other surgeons to wash their hands and instruments with 5% carbolic acid solutions before operations, and this dramatically brought down the mortality rates from infection. Hailed a hero for his significant discoveries, Lister won worldwide acclaim and was made a baron by Queen Victoria.

Personal Details

Birthday: April 5, 1827 Died on: February 10, 1912 Nationality: British Famous: Scientists, Surgeons, Oxford University, University College London, Physicians, Surgeons, Scientists Spouses: Agnes Syme Universities: Oxford University,University College London University of London University College London Notable Alumnis: Oxford University University College London Information Detail Birthday April 5, 1827 Died on February 10, 1912 Nationality British Famous Scientists, Surgeons, Oxford University, University College London, Physicians, Surgeons, Scientists Spouses Agnes Syme Universities Oxford University,University College London University of London University College London Notable Alumnis Oxford University University College London Birth Place West Ham Gender Male Father Joseph Jackson Lister Mother Isabella Harris Sun Sign Aries Born in West Ham Famous as Surgeon and Scientist Died at Age 84

West Ham

Joseph Lister born at Unsplash Birth Place

He married his mentor James Syme's daughter, Agnes. His wife was very supportive of his medical research and the two had a happy marriage. The couple did not have any children. Unsplash Personal Life

Lister died on 10 February 1912 at the age of 84 and was buried at West Hampstead Cemetery, London. Unsplash Personal Life

Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England is named in honor of Lister. Unsplash Personal Life

Joseph Lister was born on 5 April 1827, in West Ham, England, to Joseph Jackson Lister, an amateur British opticist and physicist and his wife Isabella Harris, as one of their seven children. His father was a pioneer of achromatic object lenses for the compound microscope. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

Bright and curious as a young child, he studied fish and small animals. It did not take him long to realize that he was meant to be a surgeon when he grew up. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He studied mathematics, natural science, and languages in Grove House School, and became fluent in French and German. He entered University College in London in 1844 and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1847. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He then registered as a medical student at the same college and graduated with a bachelor of medicine with honors in 1852. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and house surgeon at University College Hospital the same year. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He went to Edinburgh, Scotland, in the fall of 1853 and became acquainted with James Syme, the greatest surgical teacher of his day. The following year, Lister became an assistant to Syme at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. He was appointed a surgeon at the infirmary in 1856 and became a professor of surgery at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow in 1860. Unsplash Career

During that era, surgeries were very risky procedures. Many times the patients would develop infections and die shortly afterwards even if the actual surgery had been successful. It was generally believed that it was exposure to bad air that caused infections in wounds. Unsplash Career

In 1864, Lister read a paper published by the French chemist, Louis Pasteur, which showed that fermentation and food spoilage could be caused by the presence of micro-organisms. Pasteur had also given three possible methods of eliminating micro-organisms—filtration, exposure to heat, or exposure to chemical solutions. Unsplash Career

Intrigued by Pasteur’s findings, Lister conducted his own experiments which confirmed the Frenchman’s discoveries. Lister was now motivated to develop "antiseptic" techniques for wounds. Unsplash Career

At around the same time, Lister also read about the treatment of sewage with a chemical called carbolic acid that had led to a reduction in diseases among the people of Carlisle, England, and among the cattle grazing on sewage-treated fields. Experimenting with the same chemical, Lister developed a technique of treating surgical instruments with carbolic acid. Unsplash Career

Joseph Lister was a pioneer in antiseptic surgical methods which became popular following the publication of his paper, ‘Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery’ in 1867. He advocated the use of carbolic acid to kill the germs present in surgical instruments and on the hands of surgeons before any surgery was performed. Unsplash Major Works

Information	Detail
Birthday	April 5, 1827
Died on	February 10, 1912
Nationality	British
Famous	Scientists, Surgeons, Oxford University, University College London, Physicians, Surgeons, Scientists
Spouses	Agnes Syme
Universities	Oxford University,University College London University of London University College London
Notable Alumnis	Oxford University University College London
Birth Place	West Ham
Gender	Male
Father	Joseph Jackson Lister
Mother	Isabella Harris
Sun Sign	Aries
Born in	West Ham
Famous as	Surgeon and Scientist
Died at Age	84

Joseph Lister

British

Apr 5, 1827

Biography

Personal Details

West Ham