As surgeons began to adopt similar practices deaths from infection dropped rapidly. He was also president of the Royal Society between and He was also honoured by royalty a number of times. In Queen Victoria made him a Baronet and in she further honoured him with a full peerage. King Edward VII suffered appendicitis two days before his scheduled coronation. In the 19th century, even when an operation or treatment had been successful, the patient often died from a host of infection-related conditions like sepsis and gangrene.
No one knew the cause of infections or how they were spread, although there were many theories. Infection was the final challenge in making surgery safe. Surgery was still a young profession when Lister decided to study medicine in Anaesthetics had only just been introduced, making surgery pain-free for the patient, and allowing the surgeon to try more complicated and time-consuming procedures.
Unfortunately, this led to a dramatic increase in the number of deaths from surgical infections. As one prominent surgeon dramatically declared:. Like all surgeons of his day, Lister had an intimate knowledge of infection. In his first job as a surgical dresser he accompanied the surgeon on his rounds, cleaning and re-dressing surgical wounds, seeing first-hand the various levels of decaying flesh, pus and other bodily secretions resulting from infections.
When he became an experienced surgeon, Lister would use his home laboratory to investigate the nature of infection, assisted by his wife Agnes. He also extended his research to clinical trials in the hospital, establishing a reputation as an exceptional surgeon. The French scientist Louis Pasteur speculated that the spread of microorganisms called germs in the body could explain infectious disease. This was known as the Germ Theory of Disease. Although he never tested the theory, Pasteur suggested that a disease might be controlled by exposing the wound to germ-killing chemicals.
He looked for ways to prevent germs from entering a wound by creating a chemical barrier—which he called an antiseptic—between the surgical wound and the surroundings. The chemical he chose to use was carbolic acid, which killed the germs on contact. Lister began to develop his antiseptic techniques through experimentation and clinical trials, regularly publishing his findings. Reception to his theory was mixed.
Because they didn't accept that germs caused infections, many surgeons found the antiseptic system excessive and unnecessarily complicated. Some thought that Lister was claiming carbolic acid as a cure for infections, not as one way to prevent them! Lister applied the principle of an antiseptic barrier to a set of procedures for the operating room that are illustrated in the gallery below.
The procedures, along with the instruments that he invented, were designed to prevent germs from coming into contact with the open wound.
He introduced weak carbolic hand washes for surgical staff and carbolic acid baths for the instruments. He used solutions of carbolic acid spray to reduce the level of germs in the air around the patient.
Then in when he was 17 Lister went to University College London. Lister excelled at his studies and he passed his medical degree in In Lister became an assistant surgeon at Edinburgh Royal University.
Later he married Agnes Syme. They did not have children. In Joseph Lister moved to Glasgow. At that time it was common for injuries to become infected after surgery but Lister thought of an answer. In Louis Pasteur published his theory that putrefaction is caused by germs. Lister tried treating injuries with carbolic acid and found that it was effective in preventing infection. In Joseph Lister published papers in the medical journal The Lancet, describing his discovery.
As a result of the method invented by Joseph Lister rates of death from infection dropped dramatically.
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