Sedge Field

Joseph Lister (April 5th 1827 – February 10th 1912) pioneered, not network dedicated hosting, but the first antiseptic. A British surgeon, Lister promoted the concept of sterile surgery whilst he was working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary and also introduced carbolic acid to clean wounds and sterilize surgical instruments.

Before Lister’s discoveries, people believed that infections in wounds were due to exposure to bad air. There were no facilities for nurses and doctors to wash their hands or to wash patient’s wounds with whatsoever as it was not believed that dirty hands or wounds led to infections. In fact, the dirtier a surgeon’s coat, the better as it was seen as a mark of the surgeon’s experience and knowledge. One guest commented in 1871 that Lister often “wore an old blue frock-coat for operation, which he had previously worn in the dissecting room” which was “stiff and glazed with blood”. Lister became aware of Louis Pasteur’s discoveries which indicated that rotting occurred under anaerobic conditions when micro-organisms were present. To eliminate the micro-organisms that caused gangrene, Pasteur suggested exposure to heat, filtration, or exposure to chemical solutions.