Joseph Lister was an English surgeon, scientist, and pioneer in antiseptic surgery and healthcare. He changed the way surgery was done by carefully observing the human body, much like John Hunter had done for surgery itself.

Although Lister was not the most skilled surgeon technically, his research on germs and infections in wounds changed surgery worldwide.

Lister made four important contributions. First, while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, he used carbolic acid (a substance now known as phenol) to clean surgical tools, patients' skin, and hospital areas, helping to prevent infections. Second, he studied how inflammation and blood flow affect wound healing. Third, he improved medical diagnosis by examining tissue samples under microscopes. Fourth, he developed methods to improve patient survival after surgery. His most important discovery was that germs cause decay in wounds, a finding connected to Louis Pasteur’s new ideas about germs and fermentation.

Lister’s work reduced infections after surgery and made it safer for patients, earning him the title "father of modern surgery."

Early life

Joseph Lister was born into a wealthy and educated Quaker family in the village of Upton, which is now part of London, England. He was the fourth child and second son of four sons and three daughters born to Joseph Jackson Lister, a gentleman scientist and wine merchant, and Isabella Lister, a school assistant who was born as Harris. The couple married in a ceremony held in Ackworth, West Yorkshire, on July 14, 1818.

Lister’s paternal great-great-grandfather, Thomas Lister, was the last of several generations of farmers who lived in Bingley, West Yorkshire. As a young man, Thomas joined the Society of Friends, a religious group also known as Quakers, and passed these beliefs to his son, Joseph Lister. Thomas moved to London in 1720 to open a tobacconist’s shop on Aldersgate Street. His son, John Lister, was born there. Lister’s grandfather was apprenticed to watchmaker Isaac Rogers in 1752 and later worked as a watchmaker in Bell Alley, Lombard Street, from 1759 to 1766. He later took over his father’s tobacco business but gave it up in 1769 to work as a wine merchant for his father-in-law, Stephen Jackson, at No. 28 Old Wine and Brandy Values on Lothbury Street.

Joseph Lister’s father was a pioneer in designing achromatic object lenses for compound microscopes. He spent 30 years improving the microscope and discovered the Law of Aplanatic Foci, which allowed him to build a microscope where the image point of one lens matched the focal point of another. Before this discovery, high-magnification lenses caused a problem called coma, which made images unclear. This advancement helped make histology, the study of tissues, an independent science. By 1832, Lister’s father had gained enough recognition to be elected to the Royal Society. His mother, Isabella, was the youngest daughter of Anthony Harris, a master mariner. Isabella worked at the Ackworth School, a Quaker school for poor children, helping her widowed mother, who was the school’s superintendent.

The eldest daughter of Joseph and Isabella Lister was Mary Lister. On August 21, 1851, she married Rickman Godlee, a barrister who belonged to the Friends meeting house in Plaistow. The couple had six children. Their second child, Rickman Godlee, became a neurosurgeon and professor of clinical surgery at University College Hospital. He also served as a surgeon to Queen Victoria and later wrote a biography of Joseph Lister in 1917. The eldest son of Joseph and Isabella, John Lister, died from a painful brain tumor. After John’s death, Joseph became the heir of the family. Their second daughter, Isabella Sophia Lister, married Irish Quaker Thomas Pim in 1848. Joseph’s other brother, William Henry Lister, died after a long illness. The youngest son, Arthur Lister, was a wine merchant, botanist, and lifelong Quaker who studied Mycetozoa. He worked with his daughter, Gulielma Lister, to create a standard monograph on Mycetozoa. By 1898, Lister’s work had earned him enough recognition to be elected to the Royal Society. Gulielma Lister, a skilled artist, later updated the monograph with color drawings. Her work earned her a place as a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1904, and she became its vice-president in 1929. The couple’s last child, Jane Lister, married Smith Harrison, a widower who worked as a wholesale tea merchant.

After their marriage, the Listers lived at 5 Tokenhouse Yard in Central London for three years until 1822, where they ran a port wine business with Thomas Barton Beck. Beck was the grandfather of Marcus Beck, a professor of surgery and advocate for the germ theory of disease, who later promoted Lister’s discoveries in his efforts to introduce antiseptics. In 1822, the family moved to Stoke Newington. In 1826, they relocated to Upton House, a long, low Queen Anne-style mansion that came with 69 acres of land. The house had been rebuilt in 1731 to match the style of the time.

Education

Lister had a speech problem as a child, which may have caused him to be homeschooled until he was eleven years old. At age eleven, he began attending Isaac Brown and Benjamin Abbott's Academy, a private school in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, run by Quakers. When he turned thirteen, Lister enrolled at Grove House School in Tottenham, another Quaker school, where he studied mathematics, natural science, and languages. His father insisted he learn French and German, as Latin would be taught at school. From an early age, Lister was strongly supported by his father, who later influenced his interest in natural history. Lister collected and examined bones and small animals and fish using his father's microscope. He also used a tool called the camera lucida to draw his observations. His father's work in microscopic research inspired Lister to pursue a career as a surgeon and prepare for scientific study. None of Lister's family members were doctors. According to Godlee, Lister's decision to become a physician was unexpected.

In 1843, Lister's father sent him to university. Because Lister was a Quaker, he could not attend Oxford or Cambridge, which required religious tests. Instead, he applied to University College London Medical School (UCL), one of the few schools in Britain that accepted Quakers. Lister took a public exam in botany, a required course to enroll. He left school in the spring of 1844 at age seventeen.

In 1844, just before his seventeenth birthday, Lister moved to an apartment in London with Edward Palmer, another Quaker. Between 1844 and 1845, Lister studied Greek, Latin, and natural philosophy. He earned a "Certificate of Honour" in Latin and Greek classes and won first prize in natural philosophy, receiving a copy of Charles Hutton's book Recreations in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.

Although his father encouraged general education, UCL required students to earn a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree before starting medical training. Lister enrolled in August 1845, initially studying classics. Between 1845 and 1846, he studied mathematics, natural philosophy, and Greek, earning a "Certificate of Honour" in each. Between 1846 and 1847, he studied anatomy and chemistry, winning a prize for his essay. On December 21, 1846, Lister and Palmer attended a famous operation where ether was used for the first time to numb a patient. On December 23, 1847, Lister and Palmer moved to 2 Bedford Place and were joined by John Hodgkin, the nephew of Thomas Hodgkin, who discovered Hodgkin lymphoma. Lister and Hodgkin were school friends.

In December 1847, Lister graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, achieving top honors in classics and botany. While studying, Lister contracted a mild case of smallpox, a year after his older brother died from the disease. His brother's death and the stress of his studies caused Lister to experience a mental health challenge in March 1848. His nephew Godlee described this period, suggesting that adolescence in 1847 was as difficult as it is today. Lister took a long break to recover, delaying his studies. In late April 1848, he visited the Isle of Man with Hodgkin and later traveled to Ilfracombe. He then stayed with a Quaker named Thomas Pim in Dublin, using it as a base to explore Ireland. On July 1, 1848, Lister received a heartfelt letter from his father, who encouraged him to enjoy life's beauty. From July 22, 1848, for over a year, there are no records of Lister's activities.

Lister registered as a medical student in the winter of 1849 and joined the University Debating Society and the Hospital Medical Society. In the autumn of 1849, he returned to college with a microscope given to him by his father. After completing courses in anatomy, physiology, and surgery, Lister earned a "Certificate of Honours," winning a silver medal in anatomy and physiology and a gold medal in botany.

Lister's main teachers included John Lindley, professor of botany; Thomas Graham, professor of chemistry; Robert Edmond Grant, professor of comparative anatomy; George Viner Ellis, professor of anatomy; and William Benjamin Carpenter, professor of medical jurisprudence. Lister often praised Lindley and Graham in his writings, but Wharton Jones, professor of ophthalmic medicine and surgery, and William Sharpey, professor of physiology, had the greatest influence on him. Sharpey's lectures inspired Lister's interest in experimental physiology and histology.

Thomas Henry Huxley praised Wharton Jones for his teaching and research. Jones was known for his work in ophthalmology and research on blood circulation and inflammation, which he studied using frogs and bats. Sharpey was called the "father of modern physiology" for being the first to teach the subject as a separate field. He studied in Edinburgh and Paris, where he worked with famous surgeons. Sharpey later became the first professor of physiology at Edinburgh University.

To earn his degree, Lister needed two years of clinical training. He began his residency at University College Hospital in October 1850 as an intern and then as a house physician to Walter Hayle Walshe, a professor of pathological anatomy and author of a study on cancer. In 1850, Lister earned "Certificates of Honours" and won two gold medals in anatomy and silver medals in surgery and medicine.

In 1851, Lister became a dresser in January and a house surgeon to John Eric Erichsen in May. Erichsen was a professor of surgery and author of The Science and Art of Surgery, a widely used textbook. Marcus Beck later added Lister's antiseptic techniques and germ theory to the book's later editions.

Lister's first case notes were recorded on February 5, 1851. As a dresser, his immediate superior was Henry Thompson, who remembered Lister as "a shy Quaker" with a high-quality microscope.

Lister had just started working as a dresser to Erichsen in January 1851 when an outbreak of erysipelas occurred.

Surgical profession 1854

Before Joseph Lister studied surgery, many people thought that infections in wounds were caused by chemical damage from breathing in "bad air," or miasma. Hospital wards were sometimes opened to fresh air at noon to help prevent the spread of infection through miasma. However, there were no facilities for washing hands or cleaning patients' wounds. Surgeons were not required to wash their hands before treating patients because, at the time, there was no understanding of how bacteria caused infections. Even though Ignaz Semmelweis and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. had already shown the importance of cleanliness, hospitals continued to perform surgery in unclean conditions. Surgeons often referred to the "good old surgical stink" and took pride in the dirt on their unwashed operating gowns, seeing it as a sign of their experience.

Edinburgh 1853–1860

Syme was a respected clinical lecturer at Edinburgh University for over 20 years before meeting Lister. He was known as one of the most creative and daring surgeons in Great Britain during his time. He helped shape modern surgery by favoring simple procedures, as he disliked complicated ones. This was before the use of anesthesia, which made surgery less painful.

In September 1823, when he was 24 years old, Syme performed the first hip-joint amputation in Scotland. This operation was very difficult and required quick work, as anesthesia was not available. He completed it in under a minute. Later, he developed a surgical method called the "Syme amputation," where the foot is removed but the heel pad is kept. He also wrote a scientific paper about bone growth and was among the first to support the use of antiseptics to prevent infections.

In September 1853, Lister arrived in Edinburgh with letters of introduction from Sharpey to Syme. Lister was nervous about his new job but decided to stay in Edinburgh after meeting Syme, who welcomed him warmly. Syme invited him to dinner and offered him a chance to help with his private surgeries.

Lister visited Syme’s home, Millbank, in Morningside (now part of Astley Ainslie Hospital), where he met Agnes Syme, Syme’s daughter from a previous marriage and granddaughter of doctor Robert Willis. Lister admired Agnes’s intelligence and knowledge of medicine, even though he thought she was not conventionally attractive. He often visited Millbank and met many important people there.

That same month, Lister began working with Syme at the University of Edinburgh. In a letter to his father, Lister wrote about the large hospital and how impressed he was with Syme. He said, “The infirmary is bigger than I expected, with 200 surgical beds. I think Syme is the best surgeon in Britain, and learning from him is very valuable.” By October 1853, Lister decided to stay in Edinburgh for the winter. Syme was so impressed with Lister that after a month, Lister became Syme’s assistant surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and helped with surgeries at Minto House.

As an assistant, Lister helped with every operation and took notes. This was a highly respected position, allowing him to choose which cases to work on. During this time, Lister gave a lecture about bone growths that Syme had removed, explaining how they formed in the same way as cartilage in joints.

In September 1854, Lister’s assistant position ended. He considered moving to London but was warned that he might not be welcomed there. Instead, he planned a trip to Europe. However, an opportunity arose when Richard James Mackenzie, a surgeon in Edinburgh, died. Mackenzie had been expected to replace Syme but died from cholera during the Crimean War. Lister asked Syme to let him take Mackenzie’s position. At first, Syme refused because Lister was not licensed to operate in Scotland, but later agreed. In October 1854, Lister became a lecturer and took over Mackenzie’s lecture room. In April 1855, Lister was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and moved into a home in Edinburgh. In June 1855, he traveled to Paris to study surgery on dead bodies.

On November 7, 1855, Lister gave his first public lecture on surgery at a building called Old Jerusalem, across from the hospital. His lecture was based on 21 pages of notes. At first, he read from his notes, but later he spoke without them, slowly building his arguments. This helped him overcome a slight speech problem.

His first class had nine students, but soon more joined. However, later classes had fewer people. His first lecture explained the role of surgery, linked it to the Hippocratic Oath, and recommended Syme’s book on surgery. Over the next year, Lister gave 114 lectures covering topics like blood circulation, inflammation, and clinical surgery. He finished his first course in April 1856 and started a second course in 1858, focusing on surgical diseases and operations.

In mid-1854, Lister began dating Agnes Syme. He told his parents about his feelings, but they worried because he was a Quaker and Agnes was not. At that time, marrying someone not in the Quaker faith was seen as leaving the group. Lister asked his father if he would support him financially if he married Agnes. His father said he would continue to help and even suggested that Syme might offer a dowry. Lister decided to leave the Quakers and became a Protestant, joining a church in Edinburgh. In August 1855, Lister proposed to Agnes, and they married in April 1856 at Millbank, Syme’s home.

Glasgow 1860–1869

To be officially added to the university staff, Lister had to give a speech in Latin to the academic council. In a letter to his father, he wrote about being surprised when a message from Allen Thomson arrived, telling him that his thesis had to be presented the next day, on 9 March. Lister could not start writing the paper until 2 a.m. that night and had only finished about two-thirds of it by the time he arrived in Glasgow. He completed the rest at Thomson’s home. In the letter, he described feeling nervous before entering the room where he would present his speech. After his thesis was read and he was officially added to the senate, he signed a statement promising not to act against the wishes of the Church of Scotland. Although the details of his thesis are unknown, its title is recorded as "De Arte Chirurgica Recte Erudienda" ("On the proper way of teaching the art of surgery").

In early May 1860, Lister and his wife moved to their new home at 17 Woodside Place in Glasgow, which was on the city’s western edge at the time. In 1860, university life in Glasgow took place in the crowded buildings of a small college on Glasgow High Street, a mile east of the city center. This area was near the Glasgow Royal Infirmary (GRI), the cathedral, and the oldest parts of the city, which were very dirty. The Scottish writer Andrew Lang described the college as having worse smells than a place he had studied in, where someone claimed to smell 75 different bad smells. The city was so polluted that grass could not grow.

The position of Professor of Surgery at Glasgow University was unusual because it did not include a job at the Royal Infirmary, as the university and hospital were separate. The Professor of Surgery did not automatically get care of surgical wards at the hospital, which depended on the kindness of the hospital directors. His predecessor, Lawrie, had never worked at the hospital. Without patients to care for, Lister immediately began teaching a summer course. He found that the classrooms were too small and had low ceilings, making them uncomfortable when crowded with students. Before his first lecture, Lister and his wife cleaned and painted their assigned lecture room at their own expense. He inherited a large group of students from his predecessor, and the number of students grew quickly.

After his first lecture, Lister wrote positively about Glasgow:

In August 1860, Lister’s parents visited him and traveled by "saloon" carriage on the Great Northern Railway. In September 1860, Marcus Beck moved in with the Listers and their two servants to study medicine at the university. During the summer, Lister, Beck, Lucy Syme, and Ramsay took a short trip to Balloch on Loch Lomond. While visiting Tarbet in Argyll, the men rowed across the loch and climbed Ben Lomond.

In August 1860, Lister was turned down for a job at the Royal Infirmary by David Smith, a shoemaker who led the hospital board. When Lister explained to Smith that students needed to see anatomical demonstrations to learn surgery, Smith said the infirmary’s purpose was to treat patients, not to teach. Lister was both surprised and upset by the rejection, as Thomson had promised him the job. In fact, Lister had told his father in a letter that the position was guaranteed.

In November 1860, the winter lecture course began. A total of 182 students signed up for the lectures, and Godlee noted it was likely the largest group of students learning surgery in Great Britain, if not Europe. The class mostly included fourth-year students, with some third- and second-year students. The students were so excited about Lister’s teaching that they chose him as the Honorary President of their Medical Society. When the time came for the election to the surgeoncy in 1861, 161 students signed a petition on parchment supporting his claim. Lister was not elected until 5 August 1861, in what Beck called a "troublesome process." In October 1861, Lister was put in charge of wards XXIV and XXV at the GRI. He performed his first public operation in November 1861. Soon after arriving at the GRI, a new surgical building was constructed, and Lister conducted many of his antisepsis experiments there.

Between the end of his winter lecture course and his appointment, Lister’s letters had little scientific content. A letter to his father dated 2 August 1861 explained why. He had stopped his experiments on blood clotting to write two chapters, "Amputation" and "On Æsthetics" (On anaesthetics), for the medical book System of Surgery by Timothy Holmes, published in four volumes in 1862. Chloroform was Lister’s preferred anaesthetic. He wrote three papers for Holmes in 1861, 1870, and 1882. When Lister first recommended chloroform to Syme in 1855, the science of anaesthesia was still developing. He continued using it until the 1880s. His sister, Isabella Sophie, first told him about chloroform in 1848 when she had a tooth pulled. He used it safely on three patients with jaw tumors in 1854. He classified it with alcohol and opium as a "specific irritant" in his work on inflammation. Lister preferred chloroform to ether because it was safer to use in artificial light, protected the heart and blood vessels, and, in his view, gave patients "mental tranquility." In the 1871 edition, he reported no deaths from chloroform at Edinburgh or Glasgow hospitals between 1861 and 1870. Lister described how his assistant applied chloroform to a handkerchief used as a mask and watched the patient’s breathing. In 1870, Lister updated his chapter to express concern about using chloroform on older or sick patients. In the same edition, he recommended nitrous oxide for tooth extraction and ether for abdominal surgery to avoid vomiting. In 1873, English medical journals suggested using sulfuric ether instead, but Watson Cheyne noted no deaths from chloroform that winter. In 1880, the British Medical Association recommended testing a synthetic gas called ethidene dichloride. On 14 November 1881, Paul Bert published a graph showing how much chloroform was needed for anesthesia, but Lister believed smaller doses were enough. Starting in April 1882, Lister began using ether in clinical research and tested it on chaffinches, then on

Edinburgh 1869–1877

Within a month of Lister being appointed in Edinburgh, his father, who was 84 years old, became seriously ill. Lister had planned to visit his father in Upton the following week and wrote a letter on September 12. He did not know this would be his final letter to his father. When his father’s condition worsened, Lister traveled south to spend time with him before his father passed away on October 24, 1869.

In October 1869, the Lister family moved to Edinburgh. They first lived in a furnished house at 7 Abercromby Place and later moved to 9 Charlotte Square in the New Town, Edinburgh, six months later.

On November 8, Lister gave his first lecture as a professor titled "An Introductory Lecture (On the Causation of Putrefaction and Fermentation)."

In Edinburgh, Lister focused on improving the design of his surgical dressings, making antiseptics more reliable, and applying his techniques to a wider range of operations. He chose cases involving the repair of bone deformities and the correction of improperly healed fractures.

On January 1, 1870, Lister published a paper titled "On the Effects of the Antiseptic System of Treatment upon the Salubrity of a Surgical Hospital." After his father’s death, Lister’s writing no longer reflected his father’s influence, leading to a paper that showed less tact, more boastfulness, and greater confidence than his earlier works. He described how his hospital wards had improved, calling them "models of healthiness" compared to "some of the most unhealthy in the kingdom." Lister blamed hospital administrators for high death rates and poor cleaning of his wards. This paper, one of his most frequently cited works, aimed to prove that proper use of antiseptic treatment could reduce death rates after amputation, even in unhealthy wards. He compared operative death rates for amputations between 1864–1866 and 1867–1869. Results showed 16 out of 35 patients died in the first period, compared to 6 out of 40 in the second period after antiseptic treatment was introduced. These findings led Wakely in The Lancet to urge London surgeons to test the antiseptic treatment thoroughly.

On February 14, 1870, Lister published a lecture titled "Remarks On A Case Of Compound Dislocation Of The Ankle With Other Injuries ; Illustrating The Antiseptic System Of Treatment."

The protective

In the second half of 1871, Lister tested new ways to improve the protective material used in surgery. He eventually chose a material called copal'd oil-silk, which was made by coating oiled-silk with copal on both sides. This material was used for the next ten years.

Lister’s careful and detailed work was clearly shown in his records for wards 4 and 5 at the hospital.

On January 14, 1871, Lister shared his first information about using gauze and spray in the British Medical Journal.

To test the effects of his method, Lister sprayed surgical tools, wounds, and dressings with a solution of carbolic acid. He discovered that applying this solution to wounds greatly reduced the occurrence of gangrene.

In 1873, the medical journal The Lancet warned doctors across the profession against Lister’s new ideas. However, some doctors supported him, including Marcus Beck, a surgeon at University College Hospital. Beck not only used Lister’s antiseptic technique but also added it to the next edition of a major surgical textbook from that time.

London 1877–1900

On 10 February 1877, Sir William Fergusson, a Scottish surgeon and Chair of Systematic Surgery at King's College Hospital, died. On 18 February, in response to a request from a representative of King's College, Joseph Lister said he would accept the chair if he could make major changes to the teaching methods there. Lister’s goal was clearly to spread his antiseptic system, which he believed was essential for improving medical practices.

British surgeon John Wood, who was next in line for the chair, was elected to the position. Wood did not support Lister’s appointment. On 8 March 1877, Lister wrote to a colleague, stating that Fergusson’s previous role as chair was not significant. Lister also explained that his goal in accepting the position was to promote the antiseptic system in London. At a memorial event where students tried to convince him to stay, Lister criticized London’s teaching methods. A reporter published his speech in newspapers, which upset the governing council at King's College. They later gave the chair to John Wood.

Negotiations were restarted in May 1877, and Lister was finally elected on 18 June 1877 to a newly created Chair of Clinical Surgery. This chair was made specifically for Lister to avoid negative publicity if he was not chosen. Lister stayed at King's College Hospital for sixteen years until he retired in 1893 after his wife passed away.

On 11 September 1877, Joseph Lister and his wife, Aggie, moved to London and settled in a house at 12 Park Crescent in Regent’s Park, designed by John Nash. Lister began teaching on 1 October 1877. Attendance at his lectures was required for all students, but the number of students was much smaller than the 400 who attended his classes in Edinburgh. Lister was given only 24 beds at the hospital, far fewer than the 60 he had in Edinburgh. He requested to bring four people from Edinburgh to work with him: Watson Cheyne, his assistant surgeon; John Stewart, an anatomical artist and senior assistant; and W. H. Dobie and James Altham, who were his surgical assistants. There was tension during Lister’s first lecture, as some students and staff were hostile. This was evident in October 1877 when a patient, Lizzie Thomas, was not admitted for treatment due to missing paperwork. Lister was shocked by the lack of support from hospital staff, which he believed could harm his patients.

On 1 October 1877, Lister gave an introductory speech about the nature of fermentation. He explained how milk ferments and how putrefaction occurs when blood breaks down. He used test tubes filled with milk and showed that air caused fermentation. His experiment concluded that unboiled milk does not ferment and that a microorganism called Bacterium lactis causes lactic acid fermentation.

The speech was poorly received. John Stewart later described it as a hopeful start to a difficult challenge, but many people showed little interest in Lister’s ideas.

In October 1877, Lister performed a non-life-threatening operation on a patient named Francis Smith. He treated a fractured patella by wiring the broken pieces together. This was likely the first time a healthy knee joint was opened during surgery.

In October 1883, St Clair Thomson reviewed Lister’s first seven knee surgery patients at a meeting of the Medical Society of London.

Reception abroad (1870–1876)

In 1869, Mathias Saxtorph from the University of Copenhagen visited Joseph Lister in Glasgow to learn and use his methods. In July 1870, Saxtorph wrote to Lister to say that Lister’s technique was effective.

The first use of Lister’s method in Germany was by Karl Thiersch in Leipzig in 1867. Thiersch used Lister’s approach from the time it was introduced but never shared his results in writing. Instead, he taught it to his students. His house surgeon, Hermann Georg Joseph, tested Lister’s method on 16 patients with abscesses and saw good results. Joseph wrote a thesis about his findings, proving the value of Lister’s method, and presented it in Leipzig the following year. In January 1870, Heinrich Adolf von Bardeleben gave a speech to the Berlin Medical Society that described the results but did not include numbers or statistics.

The spread of Lister’s methods in Europe slowed during the Franco-Prussian War. However, the war also created an opportunity to improve Lister’s ideas. At the start of the war, Lister wrote a pamphlet titled "A Method of Antiseptic Treatment Applicable To Wounded Soldiers in the Present War." The pamphlet explained a simplified antiseptic technique for use on battlefields and in military hospitals. It was quickly translated into German but did not have a major impact.

The most important supporter of Lister’s antiseptic system in Germany was Richard von Volkmann, a surgeon who specialized in bone surgery and taught at the University of Halle. In August 1870, he became surgeon-general during the Franco-Prussian War and managed 12 army hospitals with 1,442 beds. After returning to his hospital in the winter of 1871, he found many patients with infectious diseases. He wrote about this experience:

In 1872, Volkmann sent his assistant, Max Schede, to visit Lister at his clinic to learn new techniques. After Schede returned in the autumn of 1872, Volkmann began using Lister’s methods. On February 16, 1873, Volkmann wrote a letter to Theodor Billroth:

In April 1874, Volkmann gave a lecture titled "About Antiseptic Occlusive Bandages and Their Influence on the Healing Process of Wounds." He explained how Lister’s methods affected wound healing. The lecture became famous in Germany, and Lister’s antiseptics were widely accepted in Germany faster than in any other developed country. At the German Congress of Surgery, members were so impressed by Lister’s work that they invited him to visit Germany to see the results firsthand. Lister agreed to make a trip across Europe.

In the spring of 1875, Lister, along with his sister-in-law Agnes and two nieces, left Edinburgh. The group traveled for several weeks, starting in Cannes, France, visiting cities in Italy, and ending with a four-day stop in Venice. Lister’s first visit in Germany was to the "Allgemeines Krankenhaus" (general hospital) in Munich, run by Nussbaum. A celebratory dinner was held in Munich with seventy guests. Lister received the most enthusiastic welcome in Leipzig, where Karl Thiersch hosted a banquet for three to four hundred guests. Lister then visited Volkmann in Halle before going to Berlin, where the group was greeted by Heinrich Adolf von Bardeleben, who worked at the Charité hospital and was one of the earliest users of antiseptics.

Later life

In December 1892, Lister attended a celebration of the 70th birthday of Pasteur at the Sorbonne in Paris. The theatre, which could hold 2500 people, was very full. It included university leaders, government officials, ambassadors, the President of France, Sadi Carnot, and representatives from the Institut de France. Lister was invited to speak and received loud applause when he stood up. He thanked Pasteur for the contributions Pasteur had made to medicine and surgery. In a later picture taken by Jean-André Rixens, Pasteur walked forward and kissed Lister on both cheeks. In January 1896, Lister was present when Pasteur's body was placed in his tomb at the Pasteur Institute.

In 1893, four days into a spring holiday in Rapallo, Agnes Lister died from acute pneumonia. While still working at Kings College Hospital, Lister stopped his private medical practice and stopped doing experiments. He reduced his social activities, and studying and writing no longer interested him. He became very sad and turned to religion. Lister retired from Kings College Hospital in 1893. A portrait painted by Scottish artist John Henry Lorimer was given to him in a small event held to show the respect and admiration his colleagues felt for him.

Despite having a stroke, Lister sometimes appeared in public. For many years, he had been a Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria. In March 1900, he was appointed Serjeant Surgeon to the Queen, making him the top surgeon in the Queen’s medical team. After Queen Victoria died the next year, he was reappointed to serve King Edward VII.

On 24 June 1902, Edward, who had been sick with appendicitis for 10 days and had a noticeable lump in his lower right abdomen, was operated on by Sir Frederick Treves two days before his coronation. At the time, surgery for appendicitis was very risky because of the danger of infection after the operation. Surgeons did not operate without asking Britain’s leading surgeon for advice. Lister gave them instructions on the latest antiseptic methods, which they followed carefully. The King survived and later told Lister, “I know that if it had not been for you and your work, I wouldn’t be sitting here today.”

In 1908, Lister moved from London to live in the coastal village of Walmer at Park House.

Lord Lister died on 10 February 1912 at his country home at the age of 84. The first part of Lister’s funeral was a public service held at Westminster Abbey at 1:30 pm on 16 February 1912. His body was moved from his home to the Chapel of St. Faith, where a wreath of orchids and lilies was placed by the German ambassador, Count Paul Wolff Metternich, on behalf of the German Emperor, Wilhelm II. Before the service began, Frederick Bridge played music by Henry Purcell, the funeral march by Chopin, and Beethoven’s Tres Aequili. The body was placed on a high platform, where his Order of Merit, Prussian Pour le Mérite, and Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog were displayed. The body was carried by several pallbearers, including John William Strutt, Archibald Primrose, Rupert Guinness, Archibald Geikie, Donald MacAlister, Watson Cheyne, Godlee, and Francis Mitchell Caird. The platform was then taken to Hampstead Cemetery in London, arriving there at 4:00 pm. Lister’s body was buried in a plot in the southeast corner of the central chapel, attended by a small group of family and friends. Many tributes from scientific societies around the world were published in The Times that day. A memorial service was held in St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh on the same day. Glasgow University held a memorial service in Bute Hall on 15 February 1912.

A marble medallion of Lister was placed in the north transept of Westminster Abbey, where it is displayed alongside four other notable scientists: Darwin, Stokes, Adams, and Watt.

Lister Memorial Fund

After his death, the Royal Society created the Lord Lister Memorial Fund as a way for the public to donate money to benefit everyone, in honor of Lord Lister. This effort led to the creation of the Lister Medal, which is considered the most important award given to a surgeon.

Awards and honours

On 26 December 1883, Queen Victoria made Lister a baronet, of Park Crescent, St Marylebone, Middlesex.

In 1885, he received the Pour le Mérite, a top Prussian honor. This award was limited to 30 living Germans and the same number of foreigners.

On 8 February 1897, Queen Victoria honored him further by making him a Baron, of Lyme Regis, Dorset.

In 1902, King Edward VII’s coronation honors list, published on 26 June 1902, named Lord Lister a privy counsellor and a founding member of the Order of Merit (OM). He received the Order of Merit from the King on 8 August 1902 and was sworn into the Privy Council at Buckingham Palace on 11 August 1902. In December 1902, the King of Denmark gave him the Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog, an honor he found more meaningful than any other later awards.

Throughout his life, Lister received many medals for his work.

In May 1890, he was given the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics by the University of Edinburgh. This award included delivering a short speech or lecture at the Synod Hall in Edinburgh. In November 1902, the Royal Society awarded him the Copley Medal for outstanding scientific achievements.

Lister was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England from 1880 to 1888.

In 1877, he received the Cothenius Medal from the German Society of Naturalists. In 1886, he was chosen as vice president of the college but refused to become president, as he wanted to focus on research. In 1887, he gave a lecture titled “On the Present Position of Antiseptic Treatment in Surgery.” In 1897, he received the College Gold Medal, the highest honor of the college.

Lister joined the Royal Society in 1860. He served as a trustee on the Royal Society’s council from 1881 to 1883. In 1893, he was elected as foreign secretary of the society for two years, succeeding Sir Archibald Geikie. In 1895, he became president of the Royal Society, succeeding Lord Kelvin. He held this position until 1900.

In March 1893, Lister received a telegram from Louis Pasteur, Félix Guyon, and Charles Bouchard, informing him he had been chosen as an associate of the Académie des Sciences.

Lister was elected an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1893, an International Member of the American Philosophical Society in 1897, and an International Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences.

In 1903, the British Institute of Preventive Medicine was renamed the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in his honor. The building, along with another nearby, now forms part of the Lister Hospital in Chelsea, which opened in 1985. A building at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, housing departments like cytopathology, microbiology, and pathology, was also named after him. The Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, is also named after him.

Lister’s name appears on a frieze at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine with 22 others. However, the group that chose the names did not explain why some were included and others were not.

Only two British surgeons have public monuments in London: Lister and John Hunter. A bronze statue of Lister, created by Thomas Brock in 1924, stands at the north end of Portland Place. A bronze statue of Lister, on a granite base, was placed in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park in 1924 by George Henry Paulin. It is next to a statue of Lord Kelvin.

The Discovery Expedition of 1901–1904 named the highest peak in the Royal Society Range, Antarctica, Mount Lister.

In 1879, Joseph Lawrence, the American inventor of Listerine antiseptic, named it after Lister. Today, Listerine is best known as a mouthwash.

Microorganisms named in Lister’s honor include the bacterial genus Listeria, typified by Listeria monocytogenes, and the slime mold genus Listerella, first described by Eduard Adolf Wilhelm Jahn in 1906.

In September 1965, two postage stamps were issued to honor Lister on the 100th anniversary of his antiseptic surgery at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary of Greenlees, the first recorded use of such treatment.

Reference volumes

The following three books are the earliest reference volumes on antiseptic surgery:

• Ernest SA (1871). The Antiseptic System: A Book About Carbolic Acid and Its Uses, Including Studies on Germs, Disinfection, and the Application of Antiseptics in Medicine and Surgery. Published in London by Henry Gillman.
• MacCormac W (1880). Antiseptic Surgery: A Speech Given at St. Thomas's Hospital, Including a Debate, an Explanation of the Antiseptic Method, Materials Used, and Examples of Its Use in Surgery and Wounds from War. Published in London by Smith, Elder and Co., pages 100–283. OCLC 956538596.
• Cheyne WW (1882). Antiseptic Surgery: Its Principles, Practice, History, and Results. Published in London by Smith, Elder and Co. OCLC 14790004.