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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Joseph Lister
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(1827–1912, bt 1883, baron 1897) Surgeon who introduced the principles of antiseptic surgery. There was a great increase in the number of operations after the use of chloroform had been pioneered by *Simpson in 1847, but many patients then died of 'hospital gangrene'. Lister, professor of surgery at the university of Glasgow, demonstrated in 1865 that infection could be prevented if carbolic acid were applied to the wound. The precise antiseptic substance was later much improved, but his discovery was a milestone on the path towards safer surgery.
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