Joseph Lister

The Right Honourable Baron Lister of Lyme Regis OM PC PRS
Lord Lister in 1902
37th President of the Royal Society
In office 1895–1900
Preceded by	The Lord Kelvin
Succeeded by	Sir William Huggins
Personal details
Born	(1827-04-05)5 April 1827 Upton House, West Ham, England
Died	10 February 1912(1912-02-10) (aged 84) Walmer, Kent,
Resting place	Hampstead Cemetery in London
Nationality	English, British
Spouse(s)	Agnes Lister (nee Syme)
Parents	Joseph Jackson Lister Isabella Harris
Signature
Education	University College London
Known for	Surgical sterile techniques
Awards	Royal Medal (1880) Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh (1890) Albert Medal (1894) Copley Medal (1902)
Scientific career
Fields	Medicine
Institutions	University of Edinburgh University of Glasgow King's College London
Influences	William Sharpey Wharton Jones Louis Pasteur

Lister's carbolic steam spray apparatus, Hunterian Museum, Glasgow

Joseph Lister, Baron Lister of Lyme Regis OM, PC, PRS, FRCSE, FFPS (5 April 1827 – 10 February 1912^[1]), was a British surgeon, experimental pathologist and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery.^[2] From a technical viewpoint, Lord Lister was not an exceptional surgeon,^[2] but his research into bacteriology and infection in wounds raised his operative technique to a new plane where his observations, deductions and practices revolutionised surgery throughout the world.^[3]

Lister promoted the idea of sterile surgery while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Lister successfully introduced carbolic acid (now known as phenol) to sterilise surgical instruments and to clean wounds.

Applying Louis Pasteur's advances in microbiology, Lister championed the use of carbolic acid as an antiseptic, so that it became the first widely used antiseptic in surgery. He first suspected it would prove an adequate disinfectant because it was used to ease the stench from fields irrigated with sewage waste. He presumed it was safe because fields treated with carbolic acid produced no apparent ill-effects on the livestock that later grazed upon them.

Lister's work led to a reduction in post-operative infections and made surgery safer for patients, distinguishing him as the "father of modern surgery".^[4]

Early life[]

Lister with fellow Residents at the Old Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, c. 1855 (Lister is in the front row with his hands clasped)

The widespread introduction of antiseptic surgical methods followed the publishing of Lister's Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery in 1867

Lister was born to a prosperous, educated Quaker family in the village of Upton, West Ham, Essex, then near but now in London,^[5] England. He was the fourth child and second son of four sons and three daughters^[6] born to gentleman scientist and port wine merchant Joseph Jackson Lister and Isabella Lister née Harris^[7] and were married on the 14 July 1818 in Ackworth, West Yorkshire.

Listers paternal great-great grandfather Thomas Lister, was the last of several generations of farmer's who lived in Bingley in West Yorkshire.^[8] Lister joined the Society of Friends as a young man and passed his beliefs to his son, Joseph Lister.^[8] He moved to London in 1720 to open a tobacconist ^[8] in Aldersgate Street in the City of London.^[9] His son, John Lister (1737-1835) was born there. Lister's grand-father's was apprenticed to a watchmaker, Isaac Rogers,^[10] in 1752 and followed that trade on his own account in Bell Alley, Lombard Street from 1759 to 1766. He then took over his father's tobacco business,^[8] but gave it up in 1769 in favour of his father-in-law Stephen Jackson's business as a wine-merchant in Lothbury.^[9]

His father was a pioneer in the design of achromatic object lenses for use in compound microscopes^[5] He spent 30 years perfecting the microscope, and in the process, discovered the Law of ,^[11] building a microscope where the image point of one lens coincided with the focal point of another.^[5] Up until that point, the best higher magnification lenses produced an excessive secondary aberration known as a coma which interfered with normal use.^[5] It was considered a great technical advance that enabled the future development of bacteriology.^[12] His work, built a reputation sufficient to enable his being elected to the Royal Society in 1832.^[13][14] His mother, Isabella was the youngest daughter of master mariner Anthony Harris.^[15] Isabella worked at the Ackworth School, a Quaker school for the poor, assisting her widowed mother who was the superintendent of the school.^[15]

Parents

Isabella Harris ca. 1839

Joseph Jackson Lister

The eldest daughter of the couple was Mary Lister (1820–1894), eldest sister to Joseph Lister. In 21 August 1851, she married the barrister, Rickman Godlee^[16] of Lincoln's Inn and the Middle Temple, who belonged to the friends meeting house in Plaistow.^[17] The couple had six children. Their second child was Rickman Godlee (1849-1925), a neurosurgeon who became Professor of Clinical Surgery at the University College Hospital.^[18] and surgeon to Queen Victoria. He became Lister's biographer in 1917^[18] The eldest son of Joseph and Isabella Lister was John Lister (1822-1846) who died of a painful brain tumour.^[19] With Johns passing, Joseph became the heir of the family.^[19] The couples second daughter was Isabella Sophia Lister (1823-1870) who married the Irish Quaker Thomas Pim^[20] in 1848. Lister's other brother was William Henry Lister (1828-1850) who died after a long illness.^[6] The youngest son of the couple was Arthur Lister (1830–1908), a wine merchant, botanist and lifelong Quaker, who studied Mycetozoa.^[21] He worked alongside his daughter Gulielma Lister to produce the standard monograph on Mycetozoa and both were awarded Fellowship of the Royal Society].^[22] The couples last child was Jane Lister (1832-1920) who married Smith Harrison, a wholesale tea merchant, who was marrying for a second time.^[23]

After their marriage, the Listers lived at 5 Tokenhouse Yard in Central London for three years until 1822, where they ran an port wine business in partnership with Thomas Barton Beck.^[24] Beck was the grandfather of the professory of surgery and proponent of the germ theory of disease, Marcus Beck^[15] who would later promote Listers discoveries, in his fight to introduce antiseptics.^[25]

Education[]

A young Joseph Lister attended Benjamin Abbott's Isaac Brown Academy, a private,^[26] Quaker school in Hitchin in Hertfordshire.^[27] When Lister was older he attended Grove House School in Tottenham, also a private Quaker School,^[27] studying mathematics, natural science, and languages. His father was insistent that Lister received a good grounding in French and German, in the knowledge he would learn Latin.^[28] From an early age, Lister was encouraged by his father.^[5] He became interested in natural history that led to dissections of small animals, fish and osteology, that were examined using his father's microscope^[29] and then be drawn using the camera lucida technique that his father had taught him^[15] or sketched.^[27] His father's interests in microscopical research, developed in Lister the determination to become a surgeon^[29] and prepared him for a life of scientific research.^[5]

Lister left school in the spring of 1844 when he was seventeen.^[27] He was unable to attend either Oxford or the University of Cambridge owing to the religious tests that effectively barred him.^[5] Lister decided to attend the non-sectarian University College London Medical School, one of only a few institutions which accepted Quakers at that time.^[30][31] He initially studied arts, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with honours in classics and botany in 1847.^[5] While he was studying, Lister suffered from a bout of smallpox, a year after his elder brother died of the disease.^[5] The bereavement combined with the stress of his classes led to a nervous breakdown.^[5] Lister decided to take a long holiday in Ireland,^[26] to recuperate and this delayed the start of his medical studies at the university.^[26] In October 1848, Lister registered as a medical student.^[26] While a student, Lister developed a lifelong interest in histology and experimental physiology.^[5] During his studies, Lister was active in the University Debating Society and the Hospital Medical Society.^[15] His main lecturers were John Lindley, Thomas Graham, Robert Edmond Grant, George Viner Ellis and William Benjamin Carpenter but although Lister often spoke about Lindley and Graham in his writings, it was Wharton Jones and William Sharpey who exercised the greatest influence on Lister.^[26] As part of his studies, Lister trained first as an intern and then house physician to Walter Hayle Walshe.^[15] Then in 1851, in his second year, Lister became a house surgeon, i.e., a dresser, to John Eric Erichsen.^[32] It was while Lister worked for Erichsen that his interest in the healing of wounds began.^[32]

Lister's first operation[]

In 2014, medical historian Ruth Richardson and orthopaedic surgeon Bryan Rhodes discovered that on 27 June 1851, Lister conducted his first operation, on a woman, Julia Sulivan, who had been stabbed by her husband.^[33] Lister found the woman with a coil of intestine about eight inches long protruding from her lower abdomen. After cleaning them with blood-warm water, they were placed back in the body and the patient was administered opium to induce constipation, to enable the intestines to recover, which she did.^[33]

He graduated with honours as a Bachelor of Medicine in 1852.^[34] In the same year, Lister passed the examination for the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons,^[34] bringing to a close nine years of education.^[34] With his medical education completed, Sharpey advised Lister to spend a month at the medical practice of James Syme in Edinburgh and then visit medical schools in Europe for a longer period.^[35] Sharpey himself had been taught in Edinburgh and knew Syme, a teacher of clinical surgery, who was widely considered the best surgeon in the United Kingdom^[36] pioneering simpler surgical procedures and who made a name for himself by first performing an amputation of the hip-joint.^[37] However, Lister who anxious about his first appointment, decided to settle in Edinburgh after meeting Syme^[35] Lister found that Scottish medical schools were founded on scholarly tradition and taught medicine using a scientific discipline developed from the work of John Hunter.^[36] Lister modelled his approach on Hunter.^[36]

Edinburgh 1853–1860[]

Photogravure of Agnes "Aggie" Syme, taken by Sir Emery Walker, 1824

Lister moved to Edinburgh in September 1853 to work as an assistant to James Syme at the University of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.^[35] On his first meeting with Syme, Lister was invited to his house, Millbank, in Morningside (now part of Astley Ainslie Hospital),^[38] where he met, amongst others, Agnes Syme, Syme's daughter by another marriage and granddaughter of the physician Robert Willis.^[39][40] While Lister thought that Agnes was not conventionally pretty, he admired her quickness of mind, her familiarity with medical practice, and her warmth.^[40] Lister became a frequent visitor to Millbank and met a much wider group of eminent people than he would have in London.^[41] By October 1853, Lister decided to spend the winter in Edinburgh. Syme was so impressed by Lister, that after a month Lister became Syme's supernumerary house surgeon at The Royal Infirmary and his assistant in his private hospital at Minto House in Chambers Street.^[38] As house surgeon, he assisted Syme during every operation, taking notes.^[42] It was a much coveted position^[15] and gave Lister the option of choosing which of the ordinary cases he would operate on.^[43] During this period, Lister presented a paper at the Royal Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society on the structure of cancellous exostoses that had been removed by Syme, demonstrating that the method of ossification of these growths was the same as that which occurs in epiphyseal cartilage.^[44]

In October 1855, Lister was appointed a lecturer^[45] after the death of .^[46] Mackenzie, a noted infirmary surgeon and surgical lecturer at the Edinburgh Extramural School, had contracted cholera in Balbec in Scutari, while on a four month volunteer stint as field surgeon to the 79th Highlanders in the Crimean War.^[15] It had been assumed that Mackenzie would eventually take Syme's position.^[46] Lister took advantage of the situation and settled in Edinburgh, renting a lecture room at 4 High School Yards. ^[44] On 21 April 1855, Lister was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh^[47] and two days later, rented new rooms at 3 Rutland Square for living.^[15] In June 1855, Lister made a hurried trip to Paris to take a course on operative surgery on the dead body and returned in June.^[47]

Marriage[]

In August 1855, Lister became engaged to Agnes Syme.^[15] During that time, when a Quaker married a person of another denomination, it would be considered as marrying out of the society.^[45] After sending a letter to his parents, Lister made up his mind and subsequently left the Quakers and later joined the Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, in Jeffrey Street, Edinburgh.^[48] On 23 April 1856, Lister married Agnes Syme in the drawing room of Millbank, Syme's house in Morningside.^[49] Only the Syme family were present.^[50]

On their honeymoon, the couple spent a month at Upton and the Lake District,^[49] followed by several months on a tour of the leading medical institutes in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy^[51] returning in October 1856.^[52] By this time, Agnes was enamoured of medical research and was Lister's partner in the laboratory for the rest of her life.^[50] When they returned to Edinburgh, the couple moved into a rented house at 11 Rutland Street in Edinburgh.^[52]

Lecturing[]

On 7 November 1855, Lister gave his first lecture, "Principles and Practice of Surgery", in a lecture theatre at 4 High School Yards.^[53] His first lecture was read from twenty-one pages of foolscap folio.^[54] Lister's first lectures were based on notes, either read or spoken, but over time he used them less and less.^[55]

Physiological experiments[]

Joseph Lister c. 1855

While he was in Edinburgh, Lister conducted a series of physiological experiments between the years 1853 and 1859.^[12] His approach was rigorous and meticulous in both measurement and description.^[12] Lister was clearly aware of the latest advances of physiological research in France, Germany, and other European countries^[5] and maintained an on-going discussion of his observations and results with other leading physicians in his peer group including Albert von Kölliker, , Theodor Schwann, and Rudolf Virchow^[12] and ensured he correctly cited their work.

These experiments resulted in the publication of 11 papers between 1857 and 1859.^[12] They included the study of the nervous control of arteries, the earliest stages of inflammation, the structure of nerve fibres, and the study of the nervous control of the gut with reference to sympathetic nerves.^[12] He continued the experiments for three years, until he was appointed Regius Professor of Systematic Surgery at the University of Glasgow.^[56] Throughout his life, Lister believed that the papers on microscopy and physiology of inflammation that he read to the Royal Society in 1857, were his most important.^[12]

Lister wrote his first paper in 1853,^[57] "Observations on the Contractile Tissue of the Iris", that advanced the work of Albert von Kölliker, demonstrating the existence of two distinct muscles, the dilator and sphincter in the iris,^[29] that corrected the convictions of previous researchers that there was no dilator pupillae muscle.^[12] It was published in Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science. His next paper was a similar work, "Observations on the Muscular Tissue of the Skin", published on 1 June 1853.^[58] Lister was able to confirm Kölliker's studies that in humans the smooth muscle fibres are responsible for the erectile function of hair, in contrast to other mammals in which large tactile hairs are associated with striated muscle.^[12] Lister's microscopy skills were so advanced that he was able to correct the observations of German histologist, Friedrich Gustav Henle, who mistook small blood vessels for muscle fibres.^[12]

In a letter of 16 December 1855, Lister recorded the beginnings of his research to trace the process of inflammation.^[59] He describes an experiment on the artery of a frog viewed under his microscope, which was subjected to a water droplet of differing temperatures, to determine the early stage of inflammation.^[60] He initially applied a water droplet at 80 °F which caused the artery to contract for a second and the flow ceased, then dilated and the area turned red and the flow of blood increased.^[61] He progressively increased the temperature until it was 200 °F. The blood slowed down then coagulated.^[61] He continued the experiment on the wing of chloroformed bat to widen his research focus.^[62]

Lister's third paper, "On the minute structure of involuntary muscle fibre",^[63] published in 1858 in the same journal, was read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 1 December 1856.^[63] It was research into the histology and function of the minute structures of involuntary muscle fibres.^[12] The experiment was designed to confirm Kölliker's observations on the structure of individual fibres.^[12] Lister proved conclusively that the muscle fibres of blood vessels, described by Lister as slightly flattened elongated elements, were similar to those found in pig intestine, that Kölliker observed.^[63] His next paper, "On the flow of the lacteal fluid in the mesentery of the mouse", was a short report, based on observations that he made in 1853.^[64] The paper published in 1858, also in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science was an experiment by Lister to prove two goals:^[65] specifically to determine the character of the flow of chyle in the lymphatics and to determine if the Lacteals in the gastrointestinal wall could absorb solid matter, in the form of granules, from the lumen.^[12] For the first experiment a mouse fed beforehand on bread and milk was chloroformed, its abdomen opened and a length of intestine placed on glass under a microscope.^[65] Lister repeated the experiment several times and each time saw mesenteric lymph flowing in a steady stream, without visible contractions of the lymph vessels. For the second experiment Lister dyed some bread with indigo dye and fed it to a mouse with the result that no indigo particles were ever seen in the chyle.^[66]

In 1858, Lister published seven papers on physiological experiments he conducted on the origin and mechanism of inflammation.^[12] Two of these papers were research into the nervous control of blood vessels, "An Inquiry Regarding the Parts of the Nervous System Which Regulate the Contractions of the Arteries" and the principal paper in the series "On the Early Stages of Inflammation" which extended the work of Wharton Jones.^[12] Both papers were read to the Royal Society of London on 18 June 1857.^[67][12]

Lister had come to the conclusion that accurate knowledge of the functioning of inflammation could not be obtained by researching the more advanced stages that were subject to secondary processes.^[68] The paper was divided into four sections:

• The aggregation of red blood cells when removed from the body, i.e., which occurs during coagulation.^[68]
• The structure and function of blood vessels.^[69]
• The effects of irritants on blood vessels, e.g., hot water.^[69]
• The effects of irritants on tissue.^[69]

Glasgow 1860–1869[]

Lister spraying phenol over patient. 1882.

Joseph Lister in his youth

On the 1 August 1859, Lister wrote to his father to inform him of the ill-health of , Regius Professor of Surgery at the University of Glasgow, believing he was close to death.^[70] Lister stated that Syme believed he should become a candidate for the position.^[70] He went on to discuss the merits of the post; a higher salary, being able to undertake more surgery and being able to create a bigger private practice.^[70] Lawrie passed away on the 23 November 1859. In the following month, Lister received a private communication, although baseless, that confirmed he had received the appointment.^[71] However, it was clear the matter was not settled when a letter appeared in the Glasgow Herald on 18 January 1860 that discussed a rumour that the decision had been handed over to the Lord Advocate and officials in Edinburgh. It also drew attention to a circular that had been delivered to physicians at the university. It been written by Walter Buchanan (MP) and Robert Dalglish (MP) asking who was best qualified. ^[72][71] The letter annoyed the members of the governing body of Glasgow University, the Senatus Academicus. The matter was taken up by the Vice-Chancellor Thomas Barclay in a meeting with the home secretary George Cornewall Lewis and the Rector James Bruce that tipped the decision in favour of Lister.^[73] On the 28 January 1860, Lister's appointment was confirmed.^[15]

Before Lister's studies of surgery, many people believed that chemical damage from exposure to "bad air", or miasma, was responsible for infections in wounds. Hospital wards were occasionally aired out at midday as a precaution against the spread of infection via miasma, but facilities for washing hands or a patient's wounds were not available. A surgeon was not required to wash his hands before seeing a patient; in the absence of any theory of bacterial infection, such practices were not considered necessary. Despite the work of Ignaz Semmelweis and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., hospitals practised surgery under unsanitary conditions. Surgeons of the time referred to the "good old surgical stink" and took pride in the stains on their unwashed operating gowns as a display of their experience.^[74]

While he was a professor of surgery at the University of Glasgow, Lister became aware of a paper published by the French chemist, Louis Pasteur, showing that food spoilage could occur under anaerobic conditions if micro-organisms were present. Pasteur suggested three methods to eliminate the micro-organisms responsible: filtration, exposure to heat, or exposure to solution/chemical solutions. Lister confirmed Pasteur's conclusions with his own experiments and decided to use his findings to develop antiseptic techniques for wounds.^[75] As the first two methods suggested by Pasteur were unsuitable for the treatment of human tissue, Lister experimented with the third idea.

In 1834, Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge discovered phenol, also known as carbolic acid, which he derived in an impure form from coal tar. At that time, there was uncertainty between the substance of creosote – a chemical that had been used to treat wood used for railway ties and ships since it protected the wood from rotting – and carbolic acid.^[76] Upon hearing that creosote had been used for treating sewage, Lister began to test the efficacy of carbolic acid when applied directly to wounds.^[77]

Therefore, Lister tested the results of spraying instruments, the surgical incisions, and dressings with a solution of carbolic acid. Lister found that the solution swabbed on wounds remarkably reduced the incidence of gangrene.^[78] In the spring of 1865, Lister read about Louis Pasteur's discovery of living things causing fermentation and putrefaction in the journal Comptes rendus hebdomadaires of the French Academy of Sciences, that was given to him by his friend, the chemist Thomas Anderson.^[79]

The antiseptic system[]

An 1875 portrait of American surgeon Samuel Gross at work by Thomas Eakins. Gross rejected Lister's methodology when Lister visited the International Medical Congress in Philadelphia on 1876. Gross is quoted as saying: "Little if any faith is placed by any enlightened or experienced surgeon on this side of the Atlantic in the so-called carbolic acid treatment of Professor Lister".^[80]

The painting by Thomas Eakins known as The Agnew Clinic was painted in 1889. It details the students of University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine operation.

On 12 August 1865, Lister achieved success for the first time when he used full-strength carbolic acid to disinfect a compound fracture.^[81][82] He applied a piece of lint dipped in carbolic acid solution onto the wound of a eleven year-old boy, James Greenlees, who had sustained a compound fracture after a cart wheel had passed over his leg.^[83] After four days, he renewed the pad and discovered that no infection had developed, and after a total of six weeks he was amazed to discover that the boy's bones had fused back together, without suppuration. He subsequently published his results in The Lancet in a series of six articles, running from March through July 1867.^[84][85][7]

He instructed surgeons under his responsibility to wear clean gloves and wash their hands before and after operations with five per cent carbolic acid solutions. Instruments were also washed in the same solution and assistants sprayed the solution in the operating theatre. One of his additional suggestions was to stop using porous natural materials in manufacturing the handles of medical instruments.^[86]

Lister left Glasgow University in 1869 and was succeeded by George Husband Baird MacLeod.^[87] Lister then returned to Edinburgh as successor to Syme as Professor of Surgery at the University of Edinburgh and continued to develop improved methods of antisepsis and asepsis. Amongst those he worked with there, who helped him and his work, was the senior apothecary and later MD, Alexander Gunn.^[88] Lister's fame had spread by then, and audiences of 400 often came to hear him lecture. As the germ theory of disease became more understood, it was realised that infection could be better avoided by preventing bacteria from getting into wounds in the first place. This led to the rise of aseptic surgery. On the hundredth anniversary of his death, in 2012, Lister was considered by most in the medical field as "the father of modern surgery".^[77]

Diffusion of Listerism[]

Although Lister was so roundly honoured in later life, his ideas about the transmission of infection and the use of antiseptics were widely criticised in his early career.^[7] In 1869, at the meetings of the British Association at Leeds, Lister's ideas were mocked; and again, in 1873, the medical journal The Lancet warned the entire medical profession against his progressive ideas.^[89] However, Lister did have some supporters including Marcus Beck, a consultant surgeon at University College Hospital, who not only practiced Lister's antiseptic technique, but included it in the next edition of one of the main surgical textbooks of the time.^[90][91]

Lister's use of carbolic acid proved problematic, and he eventually repudiated it for superior methods. The spray irritated eyes and respiratory tracts, and the soaked bandages were suspected of damaging tissue, so his teachings and methods were not always adopted in their entirety.^[92] Because his ideas were based on germ theory, which was in its infancy, their adoption was slow.^[93] General criticism of his methods was exacerbated by the fact that he found it hard to express himself adequately in writing, so they seemed complicated, unorganised, and impractical.^[94]

Edinburgh 1869–1877[]

London 1877–1900[]

On 10 February 1877, Scottish surgeon, Sir William Fergusson Chair of Systematic Surgery at King's College Hospital, died.^[95] On 18 February, in reply to a tentative approach from a representative of Kings College, Lister stated that he would be willing to accept the Chair^[96] on the proviso that he could radically reform the teaching there.^[96] There was no doubt that Lister mission was both evangelical and apostolic, and this was his true purpose.^[97]

British surgeon John Wood was originally next in line and was elected to the chair.^[98] Wood was hostile to Lister obtaining the chair.^[98] On 8 March 1877, in a private letter to an associate, Lister contrasted their differing teaching methods and stated in no uncertain terms his opinion of Ferguson, "The mere fact of Fergusson having held the clinical chair is surely a matter of no great moment".^[99] In a comment to another colleague, Lister stated that his goal in taking the appointment was "the thorough working of the antiseptic system with a view to its diffusion in the Metropolis".^[99] At a memorial held by his students to persuade him to remain, Lister criticised London teaching. His impromptu speech was heard by a reporter, that ensured it was publisshed in the London and Edinbugh newspapers.^[100] This jeopardised Lister's position, as word reached the governing council at King’s College, who awarded the Chair to John Wood, a few weeks later.^[101]

However, negotiations were renewed in May and he was finally elected on 18 June 1877 to an newly created Chair of Clinical Surgery.^[15] The second Clinical Surgery Chair was created specifically for Lister, as the hospital feared the negative publicity that would have resulted should Lister not been elected.^[102]

On the 11 September 1877, Joseph and Aggie moved to London^[103] and the couple found a house at 12 Park Crescent, Regent's Park.^[104] Lister began teaching on the first day of October.^[103] The hospital made it mandatory that all students should attend Lister's lecturers.^[103] Attendance was small compared to the four hundred who would regularly attend his classes in Edinburgh.^[103] Lister's conditions of employment were met, but he was only provided with 24 beds, instead of the 60 beds that he was used to in Edinburgh.^[105] Lister stipulated that he should be able to bring from Edinburgh four people who would constitute the core of his new staff at the hospital.^[106] These were Watson Cheyne who became his assistant surgeon, John Stewart, an anatomical artist and senior assistant, along with W.H. Dobie and James Altham who were Lister's dressers (surgical assistants who dressed wounds).^[106] There was considerable friction at Lister's first lecture, both from students who heckled him^[105] and staff. Even the nurses were hostile.^[106] This was clearly illustrated in October 1877^[107] when a patient, Lizzie Thomas, who travelled from Edinburgh Royal Infirmary to be treated for a Psoas abscess, was not admitted due to not having the correct paperwork.^[108] Lister could hardly believe that such a lack of sympathy from imperious nurses could exist.^[109] More so, such a state of mind was a real danger to his patients, as it depended on loyal staff to carry out the preparations required for antiseptic surgery.^[109]

On 1 October 1877, Lister held a customary introductory address and choose the subject, "The nature of fermentation".^[110] Lister described the fermentation of milk and explained how putrefaction was caused by fermentation of blood^[111] and, in the process, tried to prove that all fermentation was due to microorganisms. The address was badly received.^[105] In defence, John Stewart described it as: "...a brilliant and most hopeful beginning of what we regarded as a campaign in the enemy's country... There seemed to be a colossal apathy, an inconceivable indifference to the light which, to our minds, shone so brightly, a monstrous inertia to the force of new ideas."^[112]

In October 1877, Lister performed an operation on a patient, Francis Smith, that wasn't considered life-threatening.^[113][114] The open operation on a broken patella (kneecap), in front of 200 students involved wiring the two fragments together.^[114]

In 1881 Lister was elected President of the Clinical Society of London.^[115]

He also developed a method of repairing kneecaps with metal wire and improved the technique of mastectomy. He was also known for being the first surgeon to use catgut ligatures, sutures, and rubber drains, and developing an aortic tourniquet.^[116][5] He also introduced a diluted spray of carbolic acid combined with its surgical use, however he abandoned the carbolic acid sprays in the late 1890s after he saw it provided no beneficial change in the outcomes of the surgeries performed with the carbolic acid spray. The only reported reactions were minor symptoms that did not affect the surgical outcome as a whole, like coughing, irritation of the eye, and minor tissue damage among his patients who were exposed to the carbolic acid sprays during the surgery.^[117]

Later life[]

Joseph Lister, Baron Lister acclaims Louis Pasteur at Pasteur's Jubilee, Paris, 1892. Photograph after a painting by Jean-André Rixens

In 1893, four days into their spring holiday in Rapallo, Italy, Agnes, Baroness Lister, died from acute pneumonia.^[118] While still responsible for the wards at Kings College Hospital, Lister's private practice ceased along with an appetite for experimental work. Social gatherings were severely curtailed.^[119] Studying and writing lost appeal for him and he sank into religious melancholy.^[119] On 31 July 1895, Lister retired from Kings College Hospital.^[120] Lister was presented with a portrait painted by Scottish artist John Henry Lorimer, in a small presentation, held in recognition of the affection and esteem that felt by his colleagues.^[120]

Despite suffering a stroke, he still came into the public light from time to time. He had for several years been a Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, and from March 1900 was appointed the Serjeant Surgeon to the Queen,^[121] thus becoming the senior surgeon in the Medical Household of the Royal Household of the sovereign. After her death the following year, he was re-appointed as such to her successor, King Edward VII.^[122]

On 24 June 1902, with a 10-day history of appendicitis with a distinct mass on the right lower quadrant, Edward was operated on by Sir Frederick Treves two days before his scheduled coronation.^[123] Like all internal surgery at the time, the appendectomy needed by the King still posed an extremely high risk of death by post-operational infection, and surgeons did not dare operate without consulting Britain's leading surgical authority.^[124] Lister obligingly advised them in the latest antiseptic surgical methods (which they followed to the letter), and the King survived, later telling Lister, "I know that if it had not been for you and your work, I wouldn't be sitting here today."^[125]

Death[]

Lord Lister died on 10 February 1912 at his country home in Walmer, Kent, at the age of 84.^[126] After a large public funeral service at Westminster Abbey, his body was buried at Hampstead Cemetery in London^[126] in a plot to the south-east of central chapel. In the north transept of Westminster Abbey, there is a marble medallion of Lister that sits alongside four other noted men of science, Darwin, Stokes, Adams, and Watt.^[126]

Awards and honours[]

In 1877, Lister was awarded the of the German Society of Naturalists.^[127]

In 1883 Queen Victoria created him a Baronet, of Park Crescent in the Parish of St Marylebone in the County of Middlesex.^[128] In 1897 he was further honoured when Her Majesty raised him to the peerage as Baron Lister, of Lyme Regis in the County of Dorset.^[129][130] In the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902 (the original day of King Edward VII's coronation),^[131] Lord Lister was appointed a Privy Counsellor and one of the original members of the new Order of Merit (OM). He received the order from the King on 8 August 1902,^[132][133] and was sworn a member of the council at Buckingham Palace on 11 August 1902.^[134]

Arms of Joseph Lister: Ermine, on a fess invected sable three mullets of six points argent in chief a Staff of Aesculapius erect proper with canton of a baronet, Red Hand of Ulster

In 1885 he was awarded the Prussian Pour le Mérite, their highest order of merit.^[135] The order was restricted to 30 living Germans and same of foreigners.^[135] In May 1890, Lister was awarded the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh,^[135] that included the delivery of a short oration or lecture, that was held at the Synod Hall in Edinburgh.^[136] In December 1902, the King of Denmark bestowed upon Lister the Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog,^[137] an honour that gave him more pleasure than any of his later honours.^[137]

Academic societies[]

Lister was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England between 1880 and 1888. In 1886, he was elected Vice President of the college, but declined the nomination for office of president, as he wished to devote his remaining time to further research.^[138] In 1887, Lister presented the Bradshaw lecture with a lecture titled "On the Present Position of Antiseptic Treatment in Surgery".^[15] In 1897, Lister was awarded the College Gold Medal, their highest honour.^[15]

Lister was elected to the Royal Society in 1860.^[15] In 1863, Lister presented the Croonian Lecture^[139] at the society, "On the Coagulation of the Blood".^[140]

He served as a trustee on the Royal Society council between 1881 and 1883.^[15] Ten years later, in November 1893 Lister was elected for two years, to the position of foreign secretary of the society, succeeding the Scottish geologist Sir Archibald Geikie.^[141] In 1895 he was elected president of the Royal Society^[142] succeeding Lord Kelvin. He held the position until 1900.^[15]

In March 1893, Lister received a telegram from Pasteur, Félix Guyon and Charles Bouchard that informed him he had been elected an associate of the Academie des Sciences.^[143]

Following his death, the Lord Lister Memorial Fund was established, a public subscription to raise monies for the public good in honour of Lord Lister.^[144] It led to the founding of the Lister Medal, considered the most prestigious prize that can be awarded to a surgeon.

Monuments and legacy[]

In 1903, the British Institute of Preventive Medicine was renamed Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in honour of Lister.^[145] The building, along with another adjacent building, forms what is now the Lister Hospital in Chelsea, which opened in 1985. The building at Glasgow Royal Infirmary which houses the cytopathology, microbiology, and pathology departments was named in Lister's honour to recognise his work at the hospital.^[146] The Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Hertfordshire is named after him.^[147]

Lister's name is one of twenty-three names featured on the frieze of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine^[148] – although the committee which chose the names to include on the frieze did not provide documentation about why certain names were chosen and others were not.^[149]

Lister is one of only two surgeons in the United Kingdom who have the honour of having a public monument in London, Lister and John Hunter. The statue of Lister, created by Thomas Brock in bronze in 1924, stands at the north end of Portland Place.^[150] There is a bronze statue of Lister, mounted on a granite base in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow that was sculpted by George Henry Paulin in 1924. It sits next to the statue of Lord Kelvin.^[151]

The Discovery Expedition of 1901–1904 named the highest point in the Royal Society Range, Antarctica, Mount Lister.^[152]

In 1879, Listerine antiseptic (developed as a surgical antiseptic but nowadays best known as a mouthwash) was named by its American inventor, Joseph Lawrence, to honour Lister.^[153]

Microorganisms named in his honour include the pathogenic bacterial genus Listeria named by J. H. H. Pirie, typified by the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes, as well as the slime mould genus Listerella, first described by Eduard Adolf Wilhelm Jahn in 1906.^[154]

Lister is depicted in the Academy Award-winning 1936 film The Story of Louis Pasteur, by Halliwell Hobbes. In the film, Lister is one of the beleaguered microbiologist's most noted supporters in the otherwise largely hostile medical community, and is the key speaker in the ceremony in his honour.

Two postage stamps were issued in September 1965 to honour Lister on the centenary of his antiseptic surgery at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary of Greenlees, the first ever recorded instance of such treatment.^[155]

Gallery[]

• 

  Upton House, Lister's boyhood home. The drawing was created by his older sister, Mary Joseph

• 

  The Lord Lister Hotel in Hitchin, formerly Benjamin Abbott's Isaac Brown Academy, where Lister was a student from 1838 to 1841

• 

  Lister Building, Glasgow Royal Infirmary

• 

  Lister Room, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow

• 

  Lister Frieze, Polyclinic Umberto I hospital in Rome. The tympanum sculptures show Lister operating

• 

  Lister's name on the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, in Keppel Street

• 

  Coast House, Deal, with its blue plaque to Lister.

• 

  Lister's hearse prior to his funeral service at Westminster Abbey

• 

  Lord Lister Memorial in Portland Place by Sir Thomas Brock in bronze, 1924

• 

  Plaque commemorating Joseph Lister on the facade of the polyclinic in Vienna

• 

  Plaque at 12 Park Crescent, Regent's Park, London

• 

  Photogravure plaque, Wellcome Institute, London

Bibliography[]

These are some of Lister's most important papers and includes some papers of other scientists which strong influenced him:

• Joseph, Lister (1853). "Observations on the Contractile Tissue of the Iris". Journal of Cell Science. The Company of Biologists Ltd. s1-1 (1): 8–17. ISSN 0021-9533.
• Lister, Joseph (1853). "Observations on the Muscular Tissue of the Skin". Journal of Cell Science. The Company of Biologists Ltd. s1-1 (4): 262–268. doi:10.1242/jcs.s1-1.4.262. ISSN 0021-9533. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
• Lister, Joseph (1858). "On the Minute Structure of Involuntary Muscular Fibre". Journal of Cell Science. The Company of Biologists Ltd. s1-6 (21): 5–14. ISSN 0021-9533.
• Lister, Joseph (1 January 1858). "Proceedings of Societies: Observations on the Flow of the Lacteal Fluid in the Mesentery of the Mouse". Journal of Cell Science. s1-6 (21): 81–82. doi:10.1242/jcs.s1-6.21.81b. ISSN 1477-9137.
• Lister, Joseph (1858). "An Inquiry Regarding the Parts of the Nervous System Which Regulate the Contractions of the Arteries". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Royal Society. 148: 607–625. Bibcode:1858RSPT..148..607L. JSTOR 108676.
• Lister, Joseph (31 December 1858). "On the early stages of inflammations". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Royal Society. 148: 645–702. ISSN 0261-0523. JSTOR 108678.
• Lister, Joseph (21 September 1867). "On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery". BMJ. 2 (351): 246–248. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.351.246. PMC 2310614. PMID 20744875.
• Pasteur, Louis (1863). "Recherches sur la putréfaction". Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences (in French). French Academy of Sciences. 56: 1189–1194.
• Lister, Joseph (March 1867). "On a New Method of Treating Compound Fracture, Abscess, etc., with Observations on the Conditions of Suppuration". The Lancet. 89 (2272): 326–329. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(02)51192-2.
• Lister, J (January 1870). "On the Effects of the Antiseptic System of Treatment Upon the Salubrity of a Surgical Hospital". The Lancet. 95 (2418): 4–6. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(02)31273-X.
• Lister, Barron Joseph (1878). On the lactic fermentation and its bearings on pathology. London: J.E. Adlard. OCLC 30715167.

Two quarto volumes of Lister's collected papers:

• Baron Joseph, Lister; Cameron, Hector Clare (1909). The collected papers of Joseph Baron Lister. 1. Oxford University Press, Hodder and Stoughton. OCLC 838259550.
• Baron Joseph, Lister; Cameron, Hector Clare (1909). The collected papers of Joseph Baron Lister. 2. Oxford University Press, Hodder and Stoughton. OCLC 841851608.

See also[]

• Discoveries of anti-bacterial effects of penicillium moulds before Fleming
• Joseph Sampson Gamgee
• Museum of Health Care

Citations[]

Bibliography[]

• Cameron, Hector Charles (1949). Joseph Lister, the friend of man, by Hector Charles Cameron. London: William Heinemann Medical Books. OCLC 459047072.
• Cope, Zachary (1 April 1967). "Joseph Lister, 1827–1912". The British Medical Journal. 2 (5543): 7–8. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.5543.7. JSTOR 25411706. PMC 1841130. PMID 5336180. S2CID 31802186.
• Gaw, Jerry L. (1999). ""A Time to Heal": The Diffusion of Listerism in Victorian Britain". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. 89 (1): iii–173. doi:10.2307/3185883. JSTOR 3185883.
• Godlee, Sir Rickman John (7 April 2009). Lord Lister (PDF). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1-333-63431-5. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
• Fitzharris, Lindsey (2018). The butchering art : Joseph Lister's quest to transform the grisly world of Victorian medicine. UK: Penguin Books. ISBN 9780141983387. OCLC 1066085821.
• Howard, Edward R. (20 September 2013). "Joseph Lister: his contributions to early experimental physiology". Notes and Records of the Royal Society. 67 (3): 191–198. doi:10.1098/rsnr.2013.0029.
• Noble, Iris (1960). The Courage of Dr. Lister. New York: Julian Messner, Inc.

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister.

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister

• Works by Joseph Lister at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Lord Lister at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Joseph Lister at Internet Archive
• Works by Joseph Lister at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• The Lister Institute
• Collection of portraits of Lister at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Statue of Sir Joseph Lister by Louis Linck at The International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago