Joseph Lister Biography

Joseph Lister was an English surgeon who was the first man to realise the importance of aseptic techniques during surgical procedures. Lister was born in Essex, England, and after obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree from University College London, he qualified as a doctor in 1852. Lister became assistant surgeon at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and was later made surgeon at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in Scotland. The accepted belief at the time was that contact of an open wound with moisture in the air caused infection, so surgical wounds were Lister refused to accept this theory, and after reading the works of Louis Pasteur, he tried to prevent bacterial infection of surgical wounds by applying pure carbolic acid to surgical dressings, as well as cleaning wounds with the acid during and after surgery. Lister studied the effects of his treatment for two years and then published his findings. This led to the adoption of doctors wearing white gowns, which were used to show dirt, and using surgical gauze and carbolic acid to clean wounds after surgery. Lister successfully treated Queen Victoria using his new methods, and he was appointed Chairman of Clinical Surgery at King's College Hospital London, where he continued his research into antiseptics and clean surgery until he retired in 1893 and died in Kent, England, aged 85.