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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Joseph Lister Biography LISTER, Joseph, first Baron (1827–1912). An English surgeon, father of modern antiseptic surgery. He was born, April 5, 1827, at Upton, Essex, the son of Joseph Jackson Lister. His early education was gained at schools for Friends. Entering University College, London, he took his degree of arts in 1847 and in medicine in 1854, and became fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, in the same year, and of the Royal College, Edinburgh, in 1855. He studied at the University of Edinburgh in 1856, and at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary became assistant surgeon to Dr. James Syme (q.v.), whose daughter he married. He was thereafter successively professor of surgery at Glasgow (1860–69), professor of clinical surgery at Edinburgh (1869–77) and professor at King's College Hospital, London (1877–93). In 1878 he was appointed sergeant surgeon to Queen Victoria. Lister's earliest labors were in histology. His first investigations were directed towards proving the existence of ordinary unstriped muscle fibres in the iris. He made in addition many important observations on the early stages of inflammation and the coagulability of the blood. From the first he taught that pus in wounds was due to the decomposition of blood and serum, brought about in some way by the atmosphere, and insisted on scrupulous cleanliness and the use of deodorant solutions in his surgical wards. Before this carelessness of such precautions had characterized all hospitals. It was not until Pasteur in 1862 put forward his theory on fermentation and putrefaction that Lister fully realized that the formation of pus was due to bacteria. He at once set himself to apply the principles of antiseptics to the treatment of wounds, and the development of those principles revolutionized modern surgery. Lister was the recipient of many honors at home and abroad. In 1880 both Oxford and Cambridge conferred the degree of LL.D. upon him; he was made Baronet in 1883 and a peer in 1897, held the presidency of the Royal Society from 1895 to 1900 and of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1896, and in 1902 was appointed an original member of the Order of Merit. He died Feb. 10, 1912. Lister was a lucid thinker and writer. His many important papers appeared first in medical journals, notably the London Lancet and the British Medical Journal, and later were published in monograph form and as The Collected Papers of Joseph, Baron Lister (Oxford, 2 vols., 1909). The subjects treated include: the structure of muscle and nerve tissues, inflammation, coagulation of the blood, antiseptics (a world-famous series of essays), ligature of arteries, amputation, and anæsthetics (in Holmes's System of Surgery), etc. Consult, for an account of Lister's life, "Symposium of Papers Read before the Toronto Academy of Medicine" (Toronto, 1912); for an estimate of his importance, C. W. Saleeby, Surgery and Society: A Tribute to Listerism (New York, 1912); G. T. Wrench, Lord Lister: His Life and Work (ib., 1913). See Antiseptic. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XIV (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 211. |