Joseph Lister

Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, was a British surgeon whose revolutionary application of microbiological principles eradicated the horrific scourge of hospital gangrene and sepsis. In the mid-nineteenth century, surgical operations carried an appalling mortality rate approaching fifty percent due to post-operative infection, with surgeons operating in blood-stiffened coats and unwashed hands.

Serving as professor of surgery at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Lister read Louis Pasteur's research demonstrating that fermentation and putrefaction are caused by airborne microorganisms. Deducing that wound infection was caused by living germs rather than bad air (miasma), Lister introduced carbolic acid (phenol) as an antiseptic. In 1865, he treated an eleven-year-old boy with a severe compound leg fracture with carbolic acid dressings, achieving complete healing without infection. He mandated sterilizing surgical instruments, spraying carbolic mist in operating theaters, and washing surgeons' hands, slashing surgical mortality rates from 45% to below 15%. Ennobled as Baron Lister, he became the first medical doctor to sit in the British House of Lords.