The former Glasgow home of the doctor who was responsible for one of the most significant advances in modern medicine has been marketed for sale.
It was while Joseph Lister was living at No 17 Woodside Place, a grand townhouse in the city’s west end, that he published a series of papers on his revolutionary system for antiseptic surgery, the basis for modern infection control.
Records show Lister lived at the property from 1861 with his wife Agnes, his cousin Marcus Beck, who was a medical student, and two servants.
He was aged 34 and a professor of surgery at the University of Glasgow and practising as a surgeon.
The elevated ground floor of his converted former home was listed by estate agents Countrywide for offers over £250,000.
Located within a beautiful part of Glasgow’s Park District, the “exceptional” one-bedroom conversion offers a “bright, luxurious living space” with a combination of traditional and modern features.
The front-facing living room enjoys many original architectural features including ceiling panels dating from the mid-19th century.
Images of the flat show the previous owner was keen to capitalise on the property’s historic links – a book on Joseph Lister is displayed on a coffee table.
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A spokeswoman for Countrywide said the property had already sold for an undisclosed price after attracting a high level of interest.
Joseph Lister was born on April 5, 1827, at Upton House in Essex, the son of Joseph Jackson Lister FRS, wine merchant and microscopist, and Isabella Harris.
He studied at University College London and after a visit to Edinburgh in 1853 he settled in the city where he became assistant surgeon at the Royal Infirmary.
Lister married Agnes Syme on April 23, 1856, at Millbank House before the couple moved to No 3 Rutland Street in Edinburgh.
In 1860, he moved to Glasgow, where he continued his epidemiological research, leading in 1867 to the publication of a series of papers on his system of antiseptic surgery.
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In the 19th century, even when an operation or treatment had been successful, the patient often died from a host of infection-related conditions such as sepsis and gangrene.
Surgery was still a young profession when Lister decided to study medicine in 1844.
Anaesthetics had only just been introduced, making surgery pain-free for the patient, but this led to a dramatic increase in the number of deaths from surgical infections.
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An article on the website for the London Science Museum describes how one surgeon at the time commented: “A man laid on the operating table in one of our surgical hospitals is exposed to more chance of death than was the English soldier on the field of Waterloo.”
When he later became an experienced surgeon, Lister would use his home laboratory to investigate the nature of infection, assisted by his wife.
The French scientist Louis Pasteur speculated that the spread of micro-organisms (called germs) in the body could explain infectious disease. This was known as the germ theory of disease.
Although he never tested the theory, Pasteur suggested that a disease might be controlled by exposing the wound to germ-killing chemicals.
In 1864, while working at Glasgow University, Lister was introduced to Pasteur’s germ theory of disease and he decided to apply it to the problem of surgical infections.
On October 26, 1877, he carried out the first successful operation to mend a kneecap under antiseptic conditions, and Francis Smith walked out of hospital three months later.
News of Lister’s success was widely publicised and medical practitioners came from all over the world to see him operate.
He died on February 10, 1912, at his home in Kent.
His funeral was held at Westminster Abbey and he was buried at Hampstead Cemetery alongside his wife.
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