“Dr. Lawrie … is in such a state”: Quoted in Godlee, Lord Lister, 77.
Moreover, Lister assumed: Ibid., 78.
“I should very much regret”: Ibid., 78, 77.
“strict regard for accuracy”: Ibid., 82.
Then, in December, Lister received: This letter is alluded to in Godlee, Lord Lister, 80. I couldn’t discover the writer of the letter, and subsequent authors such as Fisher make no mention of it.
“inform us which candidate”: Glasgow Herald, Jan. 18, 1860, 3.
The protest grew, with William Sharpey: Fisher, Joseph Lister, 97.
“At last the welcome news”: Quoted in Godlee, Lord Lister, 81.
The Glaswegian medical community: Cameron, Joseph Lister, 46.
“We ought to be men and gentlemen”: Quoted in Christopher Lawrence, “Incommunicable Knowledge: Science, Technology, and the Clinical Art in Britain, 1850–1914,” Journal of Contemporary History 20, no. 4 (1985): 508.
Now, as he stood before the audience: Letter quoted in Godlee, Lord Lister, 88–89.
But as he began to speak: Based on an account told by Cameron, Joseph Lister, 47–49.
When Lister joined the faculty: Fisher, Joseph Lister, 98; Crowther and Dupree, Medical Lives in the Age of Surgical Revolution, 61–62.
Of these, over half: Godlee, Lord Lister, 92.
While Edinburgh had allocated: Crowther and Dupree, Medical Lives in the Age of Surgical Revolution, 63.
He decided to invest: The renovations are discussed by Godlee, Lord Lister, 90.
“How nice it looks”: Ibid., 91.
The refurbishments had an instantaneous effect: Ibid.
He opened with a quotation: Ibid.
Again, he had the room: Ibid.
“I now feel”: Ibid., 93.
“The game may be”: Ibid., 92.
“Stop, stop, Mr. Lister”: Sir Hector Clare Cameron, Reminiscences of Lister and of His Work in the Wards of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, 1860–1869 (Glasgow: Jackson, Wylie & Co., 1927), 9.
“I have seen human degradation”: J. C. Symons, quoted in Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England, trans. and ed. W. O. Henderson and W. H. Chaloner, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1971), 45.
William Duff: “Accident,” Fife Herald, Jan. 12, 1865, 3.
Joseph Neille: “Uphall—Gunpowder Accident,” Scotsman, April 3, 1865, 2.
“Permit us to express”: Quoted in Godlee, Lord Lister, 92.
In fact, it was nearly two years: Quoted in John D. Comrie, History of Scottish Medicine, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (London: Published for the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum by Baillière, Tindall & Cox, 1932), 459.
Originally, the hospital contained: Fisher, Joseph Lister, 107.
Despite having been built months earlier: Cameron, Reminiscences of Lister, 11.
“Its newness had not saved it”: Cameron, Joseph Lister, 52.
“uppermost tier of a multitude”: Godlee, Lord Lister, 130, 129.
“When almost every wound”: Ibid., 55.
He refused to use: Leeson, Lister as I Knew Him, 51, 103.
He also recommended: Ibid., 87.
“How can you have such cruel disregard”: Ibid., 111.
“Every patient, even the most degraded”: Ibid., 53.
Lister’s house surgeon Douglas Guthrie: Douglas Guthrie, Lord Lister: His Life and Doctrine (Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingstone, 1949), 63–64.
One of Lister’s house surgeons: Leeson, Lister as I Knew Him, 19.
“Shall we charge for the blood”: Quoted in Fisher, Joseph Lister, 111.
“the influence exerted upon it”: Joseph Lister, “The Croonian Lecture: On the Coagulation of the Blood,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 12 (1862–63): 609.
Lister designed and patented: Guthrie, Lord Lister, 45–46.
In August 1863, Lister performed surgery: Joseph Lister, “On the Excision of the Wrist for Caries,” The Lancet, March 25, 1865, 308–12.
“11 P.M. Query”: Quoted in Fisher, Joseph Lister, 122.
“Lister always looked upon himself”: Godlee, Lord Lister, 110.
“The thought that thou wilt”: Joseph Jackson Lister to Joseph Lister, Nov. 30, 1864, MS6965/40, Wellcome Library.
Lister pledged to write: Godlee, Lord Lister, 111.
“As thee say, I have now arrived”: Quoted ibid., 105.
Between 1795 and 1860: Youngson, Scientific Revolution, 130.
Over the course of three years: Peter M. Dunn, “Dr. Alexander Gordon (1752–99) and Contagious Puerperal Fever,” Archives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal and Neonatal Edition 78, no. 3 (1998): F232.
In his report published in 1795: Alexander Gordon, A Treatise on the Epidemic Puerperal Fever of Aberdeen (London: Printed for G. G. and J. Robinson, 1795), 3, 63, 99.
The second person to make: Youngson, Scientific Revolution, 132.
And then there was Ignaz Semmelweis: Ibid.
In April 1847, the rate was 18.3 percent: Ignaz Semmelweis, Etiology, Concept, and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever (1861), trans. K. Kodell Carter (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983), 131.
In fact, Semmelweis’s methods and theories: Youngson, Scientific Revolution, 134.
“Semmelweis’s name was never mentioned”: Quoted in Cameron, Joseph Lister, 57.
In one week, Lister lost: Cameron, Reminiscences of Lister, 11.
His house surgeon said: Cameron, Joseph Lister, 54.
“It is a common observation”: Ibid., 54–55.
Then, at the end of 1864: Some accounts list the year as 1865, others as 1864. I’ve taken this date from Sir William Watson Cheyne, Lister and His Achievement (London: Longmans, Green, 1925), 8.
8. THEY’RE ALL DEAD
“No Scientific subject can be so important”: George Henry Lewes, The Physiology of Common Life, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: W. Blackwood, 1859–60), 452.
Upon inquiring after the welfare: “Letters, News, etc.,” The Lancet, April 26, 1834, 176, quoted in Stanley, For Fear of Pain, 152. This story is from earlier in the nineteenth century but holds true for the 1860s. Italics mine.
There had already been three: Margaret Pelling, Cholera, Fever, and English Medicine, 1825–1865 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 2.
Although non-contagionists could point: Gaw, “Time to Heal,” 19.
“a living organism of a distinct species”: Quoted in R. J. Morris, Cholera, 1832: The Social Response to an Epidemic (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1976), 207.
“the poisons of specific contagious diseases”: William Budd, “Investigations of Epidemic and Epizootic Diseases,” British Medical Journal, Sept. 24, 1864, 356, quoted in Gaw, “Time to Heal,” 24. Interestingly, Budd thought that the cholera poison could be carried in the air but believed it spread not by inhalation but by the ingestion of aerially contaminated food and water.
“All discharges from the sick”: W. Budd, “Cholera: Its Cause and Prevention,” British Medical Journal, March 2, 1855, 207.
“The feculence rolled up in clouds”: M. Faraday, “The State of the Thames, Letter to the Editor,” Times, July 9, 1855, 8.
“bent upon investigating the matter”: Times, June 18, 1858, 9.
“complex milieu composed of two isomers”: Quoted in Patrice Debré, Louis Pasteur, trans. Elborg Forster (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), 96.
Pasteur began making daily visits: Ibid., 87.
If it was corrupted, the yeast: René Dubos, Pasteur and Modern Science, ed. Thomas D. Brock (Washington, D.C.: ASM Press, 1998), 32.
“Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation”: René Vallery-Radot, The Life of Pasteur, trans. Mrs. R. L. Devonshire (Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co, 1902), 1:142, in Godlee, Lord Lister, 176.
“the world of the infinitely small”: Quoted in Sherwin B. Nuland, Doctors: The Biography of Medicine (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 363.
“I am afraid that the experiments”: Quoted in Vallery-Radot, The Life of P
asteur, vol. I, 129.
“The applications of my ideas”: Debré, Louis Pasteur, 260.
“Life directs the work of death”: Ibid., 110.
“How I wish I had”: Ibid., 260.
“[By] applying the knowledge”: Thomas Spencer Wells, “Some Causes of Excessive Mortality After Surgical Operations,” British Medical Journal, Oct. 1, 1864, 386.
Unfortunately, Wells failed to make the impact: Fisher, Joseph Lister, 134.
“When I read Pasteur’s article”: “Meeting of the International Medical Congress,” The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 95 (Sept. 14, 1876): 328.
“It was a great part of the care”: The Lancet, Aug. 24, 1867, 234.
Unfortunately, while blood poisoning: See Fisher, Joseph Lister, 131.
“held the limb in one hand”: Quoted ibid., 130.
Frederick Crace Calvert: John. K. Crellin, “The Disinfectant Studies by F. Crace Calvert and the Introduction of Phenol as a Germicide,” Vorträge der Hauptversammlung der internationalen Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Pharmazie; International Society for the History of Pharmacy, Meeting, 1965, London 28 (1966): 3.
“struck with an account”: Joseph Lister, “On a New Method of Treating Compound Fracture, Abscess, etc., with Observations on the Conditions of Suppuration,” The Lancet, March 16, 1867, 327.
It was first discovered in 1834: Fisher, Joseph Lister, 134.
“It proved unsuccessful, in consequence”: Lister, “On a New Method of Treating Compound Fracture,” 328.
And because simple fractures did not: Joseph Lister, “On the Principles of Antiseptic Surgery,” in Internationale Beiträge zur wissenschaftlichen Medizin: Festschrift, Rudolf Virchow gewidmet zur Vollendung seines 70. Lebensjahres (Berlin: August Hirschwald, 1891), 3:262.
This particular kind of break: Although Kelly had been suffering from a similar type of fracture, Lister had thought the trial was unsuccessful because of “improper management,” not because of the carbolic acid per se.
“as if all the noises”: David Masson, Memories of London in the Forties (Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, 1908), 21.
“cutting into the ulnar side”: Lister, “On a New Method of Treating Compound Fracture,” 329.
He developed hospital gangrene: Ibid., 357–59.
“Some days later”: Ibid., 389.
Of ten compound fractures: Fisher, Joseph Lister, 145.
Over the coming months, Lister developed: Ibid., 142–43.
“[The] course run by cases of abscess”: Quoted in Godlee, Lord Lister, 189.
“I have been sometimes thinking lately”: Ibid.
Lister returned to experimenting: Ibid., 196–97.
“I now perform an operation”: Ibid., 198.
“minute particles suspended”: Lister, “On a New Method of Treating Compound Fracture,” 327.
Lister’s system involved using: Michael Worboys, “Joseph Lister and the Performance of Antiseptic Surgery,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 67, no. 3 (2013), 199–209.
“[The] benefits which attend this practice”: Joseph Lister, “Illustrations of the Antiseptic System of Treatment in Surgery,” The Lancet, Nov. 30, 1867, 668.
9. THE STORM
“Medical disputes … are the inevitable”: Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud, Essai sur la philosophie médicale et sur les généralités de la clinique médicale (Paris: Rouvier et le Bouvier, 1836), 215; translation quoted in Ann F. La Berge, “Debate as Scientific Practice in Nineteenth-Century Paris: The Controversy over the Microscope,” Perspectives on Science 12, no. 4 (2004): 424.
“All that is locally wrong”: Sir James Paget, “The Morton Lecture on Cancer and Cancerous Diseases,” British Medical Journal, Nov. 19, 1887, 1094.
“Then came a gash”: Lucy G. Thurston, Life and Times of Mrs. G. Thurston (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Andrews, 1882), 168–72, quoted in William S. Middleton, “Early Medical Experiences in Hawaii,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 45, no. 5 (1971): 458.
“B. seems to have”: Quoted in Godlee, Lord Lister, 213.
“Considering what the operation”: Ibid.
“No one can say”: Ibid.
“I felt his true kindness”: Ibid.
“I suppose before this reaches thee”: Ibid.
Lister covered her chest: Joseph Lister, “On Recent Improvements in the Details of Antiseptic Surgery,” The Lancet, March 13, 1875, 366. This is a description not of Isabella’s operation, but of another operation that Lister performed. It is safe to assume he followed a similar protocol with his sister.
His assistant Hector Cameron: Cameron, Reminiscences of Lister, 32.
“I am very glad”: Quoted in Godlee, Lord Lister, 213.
On August 9, 1867: Joseph Lister, “On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery,” British Medical Journal, Sept. 21, 1867, 246–48.
Syme had thrown his support: James Syme, “On the Treatment of Incised Wounds with a View to Union by the First Intention,” The Lancet, July 6, 1867, 5–6.
“If Professor Lister’s conclusions”: James G. Wakley, “The Surgical Use of Carbolic Acid,” The Lancet, Aug. 24, 1867, 234.
“calculated to bring down”: Quoted in Godlee, Lord Lister, 201–202.
“To Professor Lister is due”: James G. Wakley, “Carbolic Acid,” The Lancet, Sept. 28, 1867, 410.
“strange and inexplicable” use: Quoted in Fisher, Joseph Lister, 152.
“Nothing, he thought, should be tolerated”: Ibid., 151.
“hardly surprising”: Joseph Lister, “On the Use of Carbolic Acid,” The Lancet, Oct. 5, 1867, 444.
The seven-hundred-page volume: Fisher, Joseph Lister, 151.
“I find reason to believe”: Quoted in Godlee, Lord Lister, 206.
“The success which has attended”: Joseph Lister, “Carbolic Acid,” The Lancet, Oct. 19, 1867, 502.
“no difficulty in distinguishing”: Ibid.
Simpson didn’t like to be challenged: James Y. Simpson, “Carbolic Acid and Its Compounds in Surgery,” The Lancet, Nov. 2, 1867, 548–49.
“As I have already endeavoured”: Joseph Lister, “Carbolic Acid,” The Lancet, Nov. 9, 1867, 595.
“it would be a great blessing”: William Pirrie, “On the Use of Carbolic Acid in Burns,” The Lancet, Nov. 9, 1867, 575.
“I have always felt”: Quoted in Godlee, Lord Lister, 205.
“simple, effectual, and elegant”: Frederick W. Ricketts, “On the Use of Carbolic Acid,” The Lancet, Nov. 16, 1867, 614.
“certainly not superior”: James Morton, “Carbolic Acid: Its Therapeutic Position, with Special Reference to Its Use in Severe Surgical Cases,” The Lancet, Feb. 5, 1870, 188.
“an antiseptic mode of dressing”: James Morton, “Carbolic Acid: Its Therapeutic Position, with Special Reference to Its Use in Severe Surgical Cases,” The Lancet, Jan. 29, 1870, 155.
In the midst of this debate: Joseph Lister, “An Address on the Antiseptic System of Treatment in Surgery, Delivered Before the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Glasgow,” British Medical Journal (1868): 53–56, 101–2, 461–63, 515–17; Joseph Lister, “Remarks on the Antiseptic System of Treatment in Surgery,” British Medical Journal, April 3, 1869, 301–304.
“Nature is here regarded”: Morton, “Carbolic Acid, 155.
“septic elements contained in the air”: James G. Wakley, “Antiseptic Surgery,” The Lancet, Oct. 29, 1870, 613.
“Mr. Rouse has occasionally sponged”: “The Use of Carbolic Acid,” The Lancet, Nov. 14, 1868: 634.
Similarly, Mr. Holmes Coote: The Lancet, Dec. 5, 1868, 728.
“Yet in regard to”: “Carbolic Acid Treatment of Suppurating and Sloughing Wounds and Sores,” The Lancet, Dec. 12, 1868, 762.
In his first published article: Gaw, “Time to Heal,” 38–39.
“if not with all the skill”: James Paget, “Clinical Lecture on the Treatment of Fractures of the Leg,” The Lancet, March 6, 1869, 317.
“Are the conditions of suppurat
ion”: “Compound Comminuted Fracture of the Femur Without a Trace of Suppuration,” The Lancet, Sept. 5, 1868, 324.
10. THE GLASS GARDEN
“New opinions are always”: John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), ed. and intro. Peter H. Nidditch (Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1975), Epistle Dedicatory, 4.
“Although I was anxiously”: The account by Annandale is reported in Robert Paterson, Memorials of the Life of James Syme (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1874), 304–305.
“strong hopes are entertained”: “Professor Syme,” The Lancet, April 10, 1869, 506.
“We only echo the feeling”: “Professor Syme,” The Lancet, April 17, 1869, 541.
That summer, he resigned his position: Fisher, Joseph Lister, 167; Godlee, Lord Lister, 241.
“We take this step”: Quoted in Godlee, Lord Lister, 242.
“great happiness to all”: Ibid.
“We have throughout strongly supported”: “The Appointment of Mr. Lister,” The Lancet, Aug. 21, 1869, 277.
Many within the medical community: Gaw, “Time to Heal,” 42.
He was already aware: Fisher, Joseph Lister, 165.
“the latest toy of medical science”: Donald Campbell Black, “Mr. Nunneley and the Antiseptic Treatment (Carbolic Acid),” British Medical Journal, Sept. 4, 1869, 281, quoted in Gaw, “Time to Heal,” 46.
There were similar mortality rates: Donald Campbell Black, “Antiseptic Treatment,” The Lancet, Oct. 9, 1869, 524–25.
“To suppose that the kind”: Joseph Lister, “Glasgow Infirmary and the Antiseptic Treatment,” The Lancet, Feb. 5, 1870, 211.
“I engaged in a perpetual contest”: Joseph Lister, “On the Effects of the Antiseptic System of Treatment upon the Salubrity of a Surgical Hospital,” The Lancet, Jan. 1, 1870, 4.
“would hardly enter the mind”: Lister, “Glasgow Infirmary,” 211.
“so far as they relate”: Henry Lamond, “Professor Lister and the Glasgow Infirmary,” The Lancet, Jan. 29, 1870, 175.
“unsupported fancies”: Thomas Nunneley, “Address in Surgery,” British Medical Journal, Aug. 7, 1869, 152, 155–56.
“That he should dogmatically oppose”: Joseph Lister, “Mr. Nunneley and the Antiseptic Treatment,” British Medical Journal, Aug. 28, 1869, 256–57.
The Butchering Art Page 25
