Article ID: CBB001320254

Inflammation, Suppuration, Putrefaction, Fermentation: Joseph Lister's Microbiology (2013)

unapi

Richardson, Ruth Drucilla (Author)


Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science
Volume: 67
Pages: 211-229


Publication Date: 2013
Edition Details: Part of a symposium on Joseph Lister
Language: English

This paper focuses on Lister's inaugural lecture at King's College, London, in October 1877. As the new Professor of Clinical Surgery, Lister had much to report, including impressively high survival rates from complex operations previously regarded as foolhardy. Instead, he chose to address the processes of fermentation in wine, blood and milk. His reasons are not obvious to a modern audience, just as they probably were not to those who heard him in the Great Hall at King's. Having brought microbiological apparatus from his laboratory to the lecture theatre and presented proof of bacterial variety and specificity, Lister publicly demonstrated the creation of the first pure bacterial culture in the history of microbiology. It was an ingenious and well-thought-out strategy designed to generate a frame of mind among his new colleagues and future students, receptive to the causative role of bacteria in septic diseases. His timing was impeccable.

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Article Hurwitz, Brian; Dupree, Marguerite W. (2013) Learning from Lister: Antisepsis, Safer Surgery and Global Health. Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science (p. 187). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001320254/

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Authors & Contributors
Worboys, Michael
Dupree, Marguerite Wright
Crowther, M. Anne
Fitzharris, Lindsey
Neumeyer, Sybille
Dwyer, Michael
Concepts
Medicine
Germ theory of disease
Bacteriology
Surgery
Disease and diseases
Antisepsis
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
21st century
Places
Great Britain
Tropics
Hong Kong
Glasgow (Scotland)
England
London (England)
Institutions
University College, London
Royal Society of London
Royal College of Surgeons, London
St. Bartholomew's Hospital (London)
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