Sir Joseph Lister
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The Right Honourable The Lord Lister OM PC PRS |
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Photograph of Lister in 1902
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| President of the Royal Society | |
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In office 1895–1900 |
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| Preceded by | The Lord Kelvin |
| Succeeded by | Sir William Huggins |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
5 April 1827 Upton House, West Ham, England |
| Died | 10 February 1912 (aged 84) Walmer, Kent, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Spouse(s) | Agnes Lister (nee Syme) |
| Signature |  |
| Alma mater | University College, London |
| Known for | Surgical sterile techniques |
| Awards |
Royal Medal (1880) Albert Medal (1894) Copley Medal (1902) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Medicine |
| Institutions |
King's College London University of Glasgow University of Edinburgh University College, London |
Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, OM PC PRS (5 April 1827 – 10 February 1912), known between 1883 and 1897 as Sir Joseph Lister, Bt., was a British surgeon and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery.
He 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".
Lister came from a prosperous Quaker home in West Ham, Essex, England, a son of Joseph Jackson Lister, a pioneer of achromatic object lenses for the compound microscope.
At school, he became a fluent reader of French and German. A young Joseph Lister attended Benjamin Abbott's Isaac Brown Academy, a Quaker school in Hitchin (since converted into the "Lord Lister" public house). As a teenager, Lister attended Grove House School Tottenham, studying mathematics, natural science, and languages.
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