Who was Joseph Lister?
Joseph Lister was born on the 5th April, 1827 at Upton, Essex, England. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from University College, London and then continued as a medical student in 1848. He was influenced by the physiologist William Sharpney and obtained his medical degree in 1852. In 1856, Joseph Lister became an assistant surgeon at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where he met his future wife, who was extremely interested in his work. Lister was appointed to the Regius Professorship of Surgery at Glasgow University in 1861 and was later made surgeon at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. What were hospital conditions like at this time? Conditions in operating theatres in hospitals were very unhygienic at the middle of the nineteenth century. As a result some 50 percent of patients died due to infection after surgery. The infected wounds were generally known as ‘hospital gangrene’ or sepsis, the Greek word for ‘putrefaction’. The common belief seemed to be that sepsis was caused by the exposure o
