Joseph Lister Memorial - Portland Place, London, UK
N 51° 31.348 W 000° 08.760
30U E 697988 N 5711789
This memorial, to Joseph Lister, is a bust atop a plinth in the middle of the road close to the northern end of Portland Place.
Waymark Code: WMQCCA
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/04/2016
Views: 1
The bronze bust is perhaps three or four times life-size and has Lister
looking south down Portland Place.
The Victorian
Web website tells us
Lord (Joseph) Lister
Sir Thomas Brock, K.C.B., R.A. 1847-1922
Bronze, on a stone pedestal adorned with two bronze figures in front, two
shields, and a scroll with a wreath on it
Unveiled 1924
Portland Place, London W1
Plans for a public monument to Lister were delayed by the 1914-18 war. In
July 1921 a site was chosen in Portland Place, near Lister's former home in
Park Crescent, and in January 1922 Brock was awarded the commission. Instead
of the more usual standing statue, he designed a tall tapering plinth
surmounted by a massive bust of Lister. A typical Brock touch was the
inclusion of an allegorical female figure representing Humanity.The Lister
memorial sadly proved to be his last work as he died on 22 August 1922. He
had completed the bust and started work on Humanity. The memorial was
finished by his assistant F. Arnold Wright in accordance with Brock's
designs and unveiled by the President of the Royal College of Surgeons on 13
March 1924.
The
Notable Biographies website tells us about Lister:
The English surgeon Joseph Lister discovered the
antiseptic method, in which a germ-killing substance is applied to wounds
during an operation. This represented the beginning of modern surgery.
Early years:
Joseph Lister was born in Upton, Essex, England, on April 5, 1827, the
fourth of Joseph Jackson Lister and Isabella Harris Lister's seven children.
His father was a wealthy wine merchant and student of Latin and mathematics
who also developed an achromatic lens for the microscope. As a child Lister
studied fish and small animals. He also did microscopic research, and his
later acceptance of Louis Pasteur's (1822–1895) work may be related to his
understanding of the process of fermentation in relation to the making of
wine.
Lister knew at a young age that he wanted to be a surgeon, but his father
made sure he completed his formal education first, just in case. As a
teenager Lister attended schools at Hitchin and Tottenham, England, studying
mathematics, natural science, and languages. In 1844 he entered University
College in London, England, to study medicine. After graduating in 1852, he
began a surgical career in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1860 he became professor
of surgery at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow, Scotland.
Making surgery safer:
With the introduction of anesthesia in the 1840s, operations had become more
common. Except, many patients died from infection following surgery.
Inflammation and suppuration occurred in almost all accidental wounds after
surgery, and more so when patients were treated at the hospital rather than
at home by a visiting surgeon. The reason was unknown, but it was believed
to be something in the air. As a result wounds were heavily dressed or
washed with water to keep the air out; operations were a last resort. The
head, chest, and stomach were almost never opened, and injured limbs were
usually amputated.
Lister's research centered on the microscopic changes in tissue that result
in inflammation. When he read Pasteur's work on germs in 1864, Lister
immediately applied Pasteur's thinking to the problem he was investigating.
He concluded that inflammation was the result of germs entering and
developing in the wound. Since Pasteur's solution of killing germs with heat
could not be applied to the living body, Lister decided to try a chemical to
destroy the germs.
That same year Lister read in the newspaper that the treatment of sewage
with a chemical called carbolic acid had led to a reduction of diseases
among the people of Carlisle, England, and among the cattle grazing on
sewage-treated fields. In 1865 he developed a successful method of applying
carbolic acid to wounds. The technique of spraying the air in the operating
room with carbolic acid was used only briefly, as it was recognized that
germs in the air were not the main problem. Lister perfected the details of
the antiseptic method and continued his research. He developed the surgical
use of a sterile thread for closing wounds and introduced gauze dressings.
Antisepsis became a basic principle for the development of surgery.
Amputations became less frequent, as did death from infections. Now new
operations could be planned and executed safely.
Later years:
In 1869 Lister returned to Edinburgh, and in 1877 he was appointed professor
of surgery at King's College in London, England. He won worldwide acclaim,
honors, and honorary doctorates and was made a baron in 1897. After he
retired from medicine in 1893 he became foreign secretary of the Royal
Society, and he was its president from 1895 to 1900. He died at Walmer,
Kent, England, on February 10, 1912. Although Lister's antiseptic method was
soon replaced by the use of asepsis, his work represented the first
successful application of Pasteur's theory to surgery and marked the
beginning of a new era.
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