Background

Joseph Lister was born in Upton House, West Ham, England, United Kingdom, on April 5, 1827. He was the son of a wealthy wine merchant who developed an achromatic lens for the microscope.

Education

As a teenager, Lister attended Grove House School in Tottenham, studying mathematics, natural science, and languages. He then received a Bachelor of Arts in 1847 and a Bachelor of Medicine from the University College London in 1852.

Career

After graduation Lister began a surgical career in Edinburgh. In 1860 he became professor of surgery at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow.

Lister's research centered on the microscopic changes in tissue that result in inflammation. When he read Pasteur's work on germs in 1864, Lister immediately applied Pasteur's thinking to the problem he was investigating. He concluded that inflammation was the result of germs entering and developing in the wound. Since Pasteur's sterilization by heat could not be applied to the living organism, Lister sought a chemical to destroy the germs.

In 1864 Lister read in the newspaper that the treatment of sewage with crude carbolic acid had led to a reduction of diseases among the people of Carlisle and among the cattle grazing on sewage-treated fields. In 1865 he developed a successful method of applying purified carbolic acid to wounds. The technique of spraying the air in the operating room with carbolic acid was only briefly used, as it was recognized that airborne germs were not of primary importance. Lister perfected the technical details of antisepsis and continued his research. He developed the surgical use of sterile catgut and silk and introduced gauze dressings. Antisepsis became a basic principle for the development of surgery, amputations became infrequent, as did death from infections, and new surgical procedures could be planned and safely executed.

In 1869 Lister returned to Edinburgh, where he was professor of clinical surgery at the University of Edinburgh and in 1877 he was appointed professor of surgery at King's College in London.

Although Lister's antiseptic method was soon replaced by the use of asepsis, his work represented the first successful application of Pasteur's theory to surgery and marked the beginning of a new era.

Achievements

• Joseph Lister is famous for his discovery of the antiseptic technique, which represents the beginning of modern surgery. In 1879, Listerine antiseptic (developed as a surgical antiseptic but nowadays best known as a mouthwash) was named after him. He also successfully introduced carbolic acid (now known as phenol) to sterilise surgical instruments and to clean wounds.
  
  Lister is one of the two surgeons in the United Kingdom who have the honour of having a public monument in London. Lister's stands in Portland Place. There is a statue of Lister in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow, celebrating his links with the city. In 1903, the British Institute of Preventative Medicine was renamed Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in honour of Lister.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Collected Papers of Joseph, Baron Lister 1979
  • Collected Writings 1912

Religion

After graduating from the University College London, Lister left the Quakers and joined the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Views

Quotations: "If the love of surgery is a proof of a person's being adapted for it, then certainly I am fitted to he a surgeon; for thou can'st hardly conceive what a high degree of enjoyment I am from day to day experiencing in this bloody and butchering department of the healing art. I am more and more delighted with my profession."

"I trust I may be enabled in the treatment of patients always to act with a single eye to their good."

Membership

In 1893 Lister became a member of the Royal Society. In 1889 he was elected as foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

• 

  Royal Society , United Kingdom

  1893 - 1912

• 

  Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences , Sweden

  1889 - 1912

Connections

Lister married Syme's daughter, Agnes. She was enamoured of medical research and was Lister's partner in the laboratory for the rest of her life.

Father:

Joseph Jackson Lister

Mother:

Hannah Lister

Spouse:

Agnes Syme Lister

friend, coworker:

James Syme

References

• The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine
• Lord Lister
• Joseph Lister: Father of Modern Surgery
• Joseph Lister and the Story of Antiseptics