History Of Phenol

  In 1861 he became a surgeon at the Royal Hospital of Glasgow, a position he held for eight years. At this hospital Lister gets a job in the new block of operation barracks. Here he was struck by the high death toll. Serious infections such as paralysis of the limb due to lack of blood supply are common after the surgery. Lister tries to keep the barracks constantly clean, but the death toll remains high. Many physicians consider unhealthy air vapor out of the "noisy" (noxious vapors) soil around the hospital that causes it. This opinion did not satisfy Lister. In 1865 Lister read a paper published by the French chemist Louis Pasteur that the decay and fermentation of foods caused by microorganisms in the air.

  Pasteur suggests three methods to remove harmful micro-organisms by: filtration, heat exposure, or chemical exposure. Lister understood Pasteur's conclusions by experimenting on his own and decided to use his findings to develop an "antiseptic" technique for wounds. of the three methods the pasteur suggests, Lister experimented with the third. Friedlieb Runge (1797-1867) found "creosote", which was then processed into carbolic acid (Phenol). Although Runge has no understanding of how decomposition occurs, but carbolic acid (Phenol) has been used to treat wood used to connect rail and ship to protect wood from decay. It is then used to treat wastes in England, Belgium and the Netherlands. The same chemicals are also used to fight parasites and reduce odors during cholera outbreaks and outbreaks of livestock.

  The carbolic acid (Phenol) discovered by Friedlieb Runge, tried Lister by spraying it on instruments, surgical incisions, and clothing. Lister found that the carbolic acid solution (Phenol) wiped on the wound greatly reduced the incidence of gangrene, infection. In August 1865, Lister soaked a piece of yarn dipped in a solution of carbolic acid to be wiped into the wound of an eleven-year-old boy in Glasgow Infirmary, who had suffered a broken bone. After four days, he found that no infection developed on the wound, and six weeks he was amazed because the child's bones had been reunited. Lister's experimental results on antiseptics in surgery were published in The Lancet in a series of 6 articles, running from March to July 1867.

  He instructs the surgeon under his responsibility to wear clean gloves and wash their hands before and after surgery with 5% carbolic acid solution. The instrument is also washed in the same solution and the assistant is sprayed in the operating room. One additional suggestion is to stop using natural porous ingredients in the manufacture of medical instrument grip. In 1869 Lister left Glasgow, returning to Edinburgh as a substitute for Syme as Professor of Surgery at the University of Edinburgh and continuing to develop methods of improving antisepsis and asepsis. His fame was spreading at the time, and no less than 400 people often came to hear his lecture.