Joseph Lister – founder of antiseptics

Joseph Lister, an English doctor, was born at Upton, Great Britain, in 1827. He was the first to discover
the reasons for infection and is known as the founder of antiseptic* surgery. As a child Joseph was a healthy
and good-looking boy. He was the fourth of seven children. His father was a well-known scientist. Joseph
loved to ride his father’s horses, play cricket and go skating with his brothers and sisters. Like his father,
Joseph became interested in science. While still at school, he began to cut up animals and it was clear that
he was born to be a surgeon. At the age of twelve, Joseph was sent to a special school where he began to
study anatomy. While the other boys were out playing, Joseph was drawing various parts of the human
body and was giving names to the bones. Anatomy interested him so much that at the age of fourteen he
told his father he wanted to become a surgeon. His father did all he could to give his son a good start in his
career. When he was seventeen, Joseph Lister was sent to University College in London.
At first Joseph was not happy in London. He did not like London and missed his countryside, but soon he
became deeply involved in his work. Joseph’s medical training lasted for nearly eight years. Afterwards,
following his professor’s advice, Joseph started to work at one of the famous medical schools in Edinburgh,
Scotland. He intended to stay there for only a month but stayed for seven years! He assisted his professor in
performing operations. At that time, it was no secret that, after operations, many patients died. This
happened because no one knew how the surgery instruments had to be treated correctly. Along with giving
lectures, Joseph studied how to prevent infection from spreading. He did not like lecturing because it took
him a long time to prepare his classes. But little by little Lister got accustomed to it and became an
extremely good lecturer. He no longer read his lectures but spoke with the help of a few notes. Joseph Lister
soon had a class of nearly 200 students, which was the largest medical class in the country. Then he was
asked to take charge of the surgical section of Glasgow’s Royal Hospital. He accepted the offer because
now he had more time for scientific research. It was there that Joseph Lister carried out the revolutionary
work for which he is now famous: he found the causes of infection.