Joseph Lister Quotes
But when it has been shown by the researches of Pasteur that the septic property of the atmosphere depended not on the oxygen, or any gaseous constituent, but on minute organisms suspended in it, which owed their energy to their vitality, it occurred to me that decomposition in the injured part might be avoided without excluding the air, by applying as a dressing some material capable of destroying the life of the floating particles. Upon this principle I have based a practice.
Lister, Joseph. "On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery." The Lancet, vol. 90, no. 2299, 21 Sept. 1867, p. 353.
Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister OM, PC, PRS, FRCSE, FFPS, was a British surgeon and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery. From a technical viewpoint, Lord Lister was not an exceptional surgeon, but his research into bacteriology and infection in wounds raised his operative technique to a new plane where his observations, deductions and practices revolutionised surgery throughout the world.