James Greenlees – Ingliando

On this day, the British surgeon, Joseph Lister, performed the first surgical operation under antiseptic conditions, marking a significant advancement in surgical practice. When Lister became aware of Louis Pasteur’s experiments on fermentation and putrefaction and his theory that microorganisms were the cause of disease, Lister began experimenting with various methods to create antiseptic conditions during surgery. He was able to test his theory when a young boy, James Greenlees, was brought to him with a broken leg in which the bone was exposed. Lister cleaned the wound and dressed it with a bandage that had been covered with carbolic acid. The boy survived without suffering from any serious infection. Lister went on to insist that surgical instruments be disinfected regularly, that surgeons operate in clean clothes, and that the operating room be kept sanitised at all times. As a result, the mortality rate in his ward fell to just 15%.