Home > History Fact Finder > Medicine and Disease - Who Introduced The Use Of Antiseptics In Hospitals?

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page

Who introduced the use of antiseptics in hospitals?

English surgeon Joseph L. Lister (1827–1912) is credited with introducing the use of antiseptics in hospitals. After discovering that certain bacteria cause certain diseases, he began experimenting with various chemical solutions, many containing carbolic acid, which he believed would kill germs and thus prevent infections. Lister was successful, and in 1867 he reported his findings in Lancet, a British journal of medicine. Though many doctors remained to be convinced, others began using Lister's methods. By the turn of the century not only had these methods saved lives, they had changed the way doctors practiced medicine. For example, because doctors could not depend on a home being clean, they preferred to treat patients, rich and poor alike, in a hospital setting.

Another pioneer in the use of antiseptics was Ignaz Phillipp Semmelwies...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Origins
   1. How did early humans cure illness and disease?
   2. Who was the first doctor in history?
   3. What is the Hippocratic Oath?
   4. What are the four humors?
   5. When did biological warfare originate?
   6. Were there hospitals before the Middle Ages?
   7. When was the first North American hospital built?
   8. What advances were made in medicine during the Renaissance?
   9. How old is the concept of public health?
   10. What is Gray's Anatomy?
2. Modern Medicine
   1. When did modern medicine begin?
   2. Who invented vaccination?
   3. When did modern surgery begin?
   4. When was anesthesia first used?
   5. What surgical advances were introduced in the late twentieth century?
   6. Who introduced the use of antiseptics in hospitals?
   7. What are Louis Pasteur's contributions to the study of disease?
   8. When were antibiotics invented?
   9. Why are new antibiotics constantly being developed?
   10. Why is Florence Nightingale famous?
   11. When was the International Red Cross founded?
   12. Who discovered the X ray?
   13. Who was Clara Barton?
   14. What were the Curies' contributions to medicine?
   15. How did Jonas Salk and Albert B. Sabin save lives?
   16. When did the first heart transplant take place?
   17. When was the first test-tube baby born?
   18. When was the first kidney transplant?
   19. What is leprosy?
   20. What is the plague?
   21. Is yellow fever still a deadly disease?
   22. What was the first disease conquered by humans?
   23. Do scientists know when the AIDS virus first appeared?
   24. Who was Typhoid Mary?
   25. Has the flu ever reached epidemic proportions?
   26. What are CT and MRI scans?
3. Psychology
   1. Why are Pavlov's dogs famous?
   2. What is behaviorism?
   3. What were Sigmund Freud's contributions to the study of human psychology?
   4. What does the term "Jungian" mean?
   5. Who was Dorothea Dix
   6. What is depression?

1. Middle Ages