Inventor: Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, Joseph Lister

Ignaz Semmelweis was the first person to realize that cleanliness and sanitary conditions improved the chance of survival in medical procedures.  He noted that the incidence of “childbed fever” was greatly increased if doctors touched the patient after touching other things without washing their hands in between.  His theories were met with disapproval in the scientific community as it went against current opinion, and as a result, he only able to come with theoretical aspects of antiseptics.  Joseph Lister was the pioneer for the practical side and actual creation of antiseptics.  Death by sepsis infection was a high occurrence during surgery at that time, and the cause of it was believed to be exposure to oxygen in the air.  Lister correctly hypothesized that “the sepsic properties of the atmosphere depended not on the oxygen, or any gaseous constituent, but on minute organisms suspended in it”.  The way he discovered to prevent this was by applying some chemicals to destroy the microorganisms.  After he cleaned the wound, he dressed it using a spray of a substance called phenic or carbolic acid, which he called a “volatile organic compound, which appears to exercise a peculiarly destructive influence upon low forms of life, and hence is the most powerful antiseptic with which we are at present acquainted.”  This procedure was highly effective, since he did not have any cases of sepsis infection in his clinic for the next nine months.  The use of antiseptics is a life saving technique that is still employed to this day. 

*Pictures from <http://web.ukonline.co.uk/b.gardner/Lister.html>

SOURCES:

Bellis, Mary. “The History of Antiseptics”, 17 Jan 2004, <http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blantisceptics.htm>

• This site has information on Ignaz Semmelweis and his discoveries

Lister, Joseph.  “Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery”, 1867, <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1867lister.html>

• This website is a primary source containing Joseph Lister’s observations that he made from his research

Gardner, Brian.  “Joseph Lister & Antiseptic Surgery”,  17 Jan 2004, <http://web.ukonline.co.uk/b.gardner/Lister.html>

• This site has some general information on Joseph Lister as well as early antiseptics