Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister
Overview
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
(5 April 1827 – 10 February 1912), known as Sir Joseph Lister, Bt
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
., between 1883 and 1897, was a British
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
surgeon
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery, who promoted the idea of sterile surgery while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary
Glasgow Royal Infirmary
The Glasgow Royal Infirmary is a large teaching hospital, operated by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde,. With a capacity of around 1000 beds, the hospital campus covers an area of around 20 acres, situated on the north-eastern edge of the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland.-History:Designed by Robert...
. Lister successfully introduced carbolic acid (now known as phenol
Phenol
Phenol, also known as carbolic acid, phenic acid, is an organic compound with the chemical formula C6H5OH. It is a white crystalline solid. The molecule consists of a phenyl , bonded to a hydroxyl group. It is produced on a large scale as a precursor to many materials and useful compounds...
) to sterilise surgical instruments and to clean wound
Wound
A wound is a type of injury in which skin is torn, cut or punctured , or where blunt force trauma causes a contusion . In pathology, it specifically refers to a sharp injury which damages the dermis of the skin.-Open:...
s, which led to reducing post-operative infections and made surgery safer for patients.
Lister came from a prosperous Quaker home in Upton
West Ham
West Ham is in the London Borough of Newham in London, England. In the west it is a post-industrial neighbourhood abutting the site of the London Olympic Park and in the east it is mostly residential, consisting of Victorian terraced housing interspersed with higher density post-War social housing...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, a son of Joseph Jackson Lister
Joseph Jackson Lister
Joseph Jackson Lister, FRS was an amateur British opticist and physicist and the father of Joseph Lister.-Ancestry:...
, the pioneer of the compound microscope.
At Quaker schools he became fluent in French and German, which were also the leading languages of medical research.Doctors – The History of Medicine through Biography by Sherwin B. Nuland
Sherwin B. Nuland
Dr. Sherwin Nuland is an American surgeon and author who teaches bioethics, history of medicine, and medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine and, upon occasion, bioethics and history of medicine at Yale College...
As a teenager Lister attended Grove House School Tottenham, studying mathematics, natural science, and languages.
