Discovery of Antisepsis

Joseph Lister developed antiseptic surgery at Glasgow Royal Infirmary between 1865 and 1867, introducing carbolic acid (phenol) to sterilize surgical instruments, sutures, wounds, surgeons' hands and hospital wards. Lister's most important contribution was recognizing that putrefaction in wounds is caused by germs, connecting his practice directly to Louis Pasteur's then-novel germ theory of fermentation, and moving surgery away from the prevailing miasma theory that blamed bad air for infection. He published his findings as On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery in 1867. The reduction in post-operative infection that followed helped make surgery survivable at a scale it had never been before, and Lister is often distinguished as the father of modern surgery.