Lister , Joseph , 1827-1912 , Baron Lister , surgeon

Born in Upton, Essex, 1827; educated at London's University College Hospital, graduating with B.A. and M.B. in 1852; Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, 1852; moved to Edinburgh to build on his surgical experience, 1853; elected to vacancies at the Royal Infirmary and at the Royal College of Surgeons; Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, 1855; Professor of Surgery at Glasgow University and a surgeon at the city's Royal Infirmary, 1860; Regius Professor of Surgery at Edinburgh University, 1869; Professor of Surgery at King's College, London, 1877; famous for his work on antiseptics in surgery, continuing the research of Louis Pasteur on air-borne organisms. He realised that some organisms could cause post-operative wound infections such as tetanus, blood-poisoning, and gangrene. He countered this by using carbolic acid soaked in lint or calico around the wound and replaced slow-to-absorb silk stitching with cat-gut stitching which absorbed the carbolic acid more easily. He also experimented with gauze swabs and a disinfectant spray for operating theatres; appointed Serjeant-Surgeon to Queen Victoria, 1878; created a Baron, 1897; died, 1912.
Publications include: Amputation. Anæsthetics (1860); Introductory Lectures delivered in the University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1869); Observations on ligatures of arteries on the antiseptic system. From the Lancet, April 3, 1869 (Edmonton & Douglas: Edinburgh, 1869); On the effects of the Antiseptic System of Treatment upon the salubrity of a Surgical Hospital (Edinburgh, 1870); New Designs in plans for the internal arrangement of Back to Back Houses (Leeds, 1907); The third Huxley lecture. delivered before the Medical School of Charing Cross Hospital (1907); The Collected Papers of Joseph, Baron Lister. [With plates.] 2 vol. (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1909); Six papers by Lord Lister (London, 1921); Eight Letters ... to William Sharpey Reprinted from The British Journal of Surgery (J Wright & Sons, Bristol, 1933); A List of the Original Writings of Joseph Lord Lister, O.M. William Richard Lefanu (E & S Livingstone, Edinburgh & London, 1965).