History is replete with figures of immense accomplishment, who literally changed the course of human progress, yet are forgotten by subsequent generations. One such figure is Joseph Lister, a British surgeon who practiced in the latter half of the nineteenth century Lister is considered to be the “Father of Modern Surgery” and the “greatest surgical benefactor to mankind,” but who is now perhaps best remembered as the inspiration for the name “Listerine.”
Although doctors had long been aware of germs and theorized that they were the cause of many contagious disease, Lister was the first to recognize the relationship between germs and infections. At the time of his research, infections rendered surgeries so dangerous, and the mortality therefrom was so high, that there was talk of banning internal surgeries entirely because of septic complications. It was due to the risk of infection that limbs were amputated rather than reconstructed.
