Doctoring and surgery in Victorian times was almost medieval. It seems unfathomable to us now, but back then doctors didn't know about germs and that infections were caused by bacteria. They didn't wash their instruments between patients, and hospitals were filthy, often crawling with maggots and mushrooms growing on blood and pus soaked sheets. How *anyone* survived is a mystery to me. Joseph Lister grew up knowing he wanted to be a surgeon, but he was also fascinated with the microscopes his father used to build. He was a good artist and would draw the amazing things he saw under the lens. Dr. Lister was dismayed by how many patients he was losing to post-op infections, so when he heard of a theory by a scientist named Louis Pasteur, he was intrigued. Pasteur, of course, was the first one to discover that germs didn't just materialize out of thin air, they had to be born. Building on Pasteur's work, Lister started using antiseptic during and after his operations, and lo and behold, his patients started surviving without developing the nasty infections that were so common. Of course his work was criticized at first (no doctor wanted to believe *they* were the ones who were causing their patients to die, after all, they were good men who truly wanted to heal the sick) but eventually people started coming around after seeing Lister's practices put into use. It was really quite fascinating to read, and pretty good for a layman like myself (she did get a little technical a few times, and my eyes glazed over, but not too much).
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