Joseph Lister And The Tissue Breakdown From Infection

On April 5th, 1827, Joseph Lister was born. At age 16, he decided to become a doctor, and became the house surgeon at the University Hospital in 1852. While operating at the hospital, he observed that many people fell ill when skin was broken, yet people did not when the skin was not. He reasoned that the tissue breakdown from infection was caused by small organisms in the air. Soon after, he developed a solution containing carbolic acid that he sprayed into the air, and onto his surgical equipment. To his surprise, infection rates dropped dramatically. While doctors in the U.S. and England doubted the solution, he was widely accepted in Germany, where he lectured medical students about antiseptics. Eventually, he was offered a position at

King’s College in London, and he is remembered today as the father of antiseptics. At the time, antiseptics were revolutionary. Before antiseptics were invented, the chance of contracting gangrene, an illness affecting the circulatory system, was 80%. The doctors operated in poorly ventilated rooms, and performed autopsies in the same room as surgeries, without cleaning the room. In addition, sawdust from the floor was used as dressing for wounds. Once antiseptics were available, mortality rates plummeted, and surgeries became a less dire option. Since the Industrial Revolution was occurring at the same time, new medications were invented. These medications were created under antiseptic conditions, helping to drop mortality rates further. Overall, the creation of antiseptics remains one of the most important inventions to this day.