Laurence Farmer

Master Surgeon: A Biography of Joseph Lister by Laurence Farmer is juvenile literature that will familiarize the reader with the man who transformed surgery. Dr. Lister's application of germ theory unlocked the door to performing surgeries that were thought to be forever impossible. One surgeon at the University College Hospital in London where Lister trained said that the chest, the brain and the abdomen would be "forever shut to the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon." P. 19, 20.

Lister's career was part of a revolution that was occurring in the medical field. He was in the audience when anesthesia was used for the first time in England.

"The patient, who was to have an amputation of the leg, was then brought in. An assistant applied the ether, two burly attendants held him down on the operating table, and Liston, who was not going to take any chances, prepared to operate with his usual rapidity. He grasped the patent's leg with his left hand, there was a flash of the knife, the sound of sawing, and in twenty-six seconds the amputation was completed. There had not been a cry or a groan from the patient." P. 14.

Even if the surgery was successful, there was always the scourge of the post-operative wound infection. Compound fractures were almost always fatal. One surgeon said that abdominal operations were to be classed among the methods of the executioner.

Lister spent his life developing antiseptic procedures. Even though Lister was applying Louis Pasteur's research, no one in England would give his breakthrough credence. It took nearly twenty years for the medical community on England to accept his work. Once, when Dr. Lister performed a kneecap surgery, a British doctor said Lister should be arrested for manslaughter when the patient died. The patient didn't die.

This is a thin book. It reads like a long encyclopedia entry, but a well developed one that shows the character of Dr. Lister and the squalor of medical facilities. It is difficult to follow the chronology of Lister's life because dates are used sparsely and confusingly. one must flip back and forth in the book to understand the time sequence.

There are also areas that could be expanded upon. Though she is mentioned briefly and periodicly, chiefly at her death, the reader can see the close companionship between Lister and his wife, Agnes, enough to know that a book could be written on it alone.

Joseph Lister is person that we should know about, a person that this book only begins to tell about.… (mais)