This was a great book. An overview of Lister's life focusing primarily on how he developed his antiseptic processes and how they were received. The author pulls out all the stops in emphasizing just how blood, pus and feces filled the era was. Lister emerges as a modest champion and lifesaver and I especially liked the glimpses of his relationship with Pasteur. ( )

*3.5 ( )

Lindsey Fitzharris has written of a slice of medical and science history that laid the groundwork for leaps in surgical progress, and one of the figures, Joseph Lister, who was responsible for setting the course for that progress. It is frightening to consider how perilous it once was to be treated by the best medical minds. Fitzharris has the reader flinching over how terrible surgical care once was and cheering on Lister as he takes each agonizing step towards a brighter, healthier practice of surgery. This is how science history should be presented. Hooray for Lindsey Fitzharris and good luck on her future efforts. ( )

A very nice quotation-rich biography of Joseph Lister. I especially enjoyed the discussion of all of his opponents and their various comments. They remind me of the definition of an expert - the person most surprised by news to the contrary. There are many other entertaining and enlightening items e.g. that Lister had an "unreasoned dread of wet feet", the term phagedenic ulcer, Friederich Engels' comment about the poverty in Glasgow, Lister's lecturing technique, the origin of Listerine, Lister and Robert Wood Johnson, etc.
I was hoping to see some mention of the fact that Lister worked in his filthy street clothes and without gloves (first used by Halstead), even while spraying carbolic acid in the air, and some mention of Lister and Robert Koch.
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Some relatively trivial complaints:
One may look or even gaze into a microscope, but one does not "squint" into one. The author says on page 168, that mycobacterial psoas abscesses were prone to infection, but they are, of course, already infected, and I think she means, superinfection. When Lister looked at slide preparations of bone tumors, he was examining their histology - to say he was examining their cell structure is slightly misleading, especially considering the stains that he had available to him. Also, I understand that books need to be sold, but the title of this one seems unnecessarily tawdry. ( )

I read this book on vacation, and it did exactly what I hoped for when I put it in my vacation pile: as a history of science/medicine, it provided dozens of harrowing/fascinating anecdotes to read aloud to my husband as he drove. We met up with my parents on vacation, and when I finished it I immediately lent it to my dad, who started reading it in the quiet evenings back at our cabin after spending the day at Yellowstone -- then he took it home with him to finish reading it.

A throughly compelling medical history. ( )