Listerism, its decline and its persistence: the introduction of aseptic surgical techniques in three British teaching hospitals, 1890-99.

The view that Joseph Lister's introduction of antisepsis was a revolutionary act is an old one. Thus John Tyndall wrote in 1881 "Living germs . . . as Schwann was the first to prove, are the causes of putrefaction. Lister extended the generalization of Schwann from dead matter to living matter, and by this apparently simple step revolutionized the art of surgery. He changed it, in fact, from an art into a science."' Watson Cheyne, Lister's assistant in Edinburgh and King's College Hospital, London, continued the theme in his exhaustive monograph on antiseptic surgery.2 His book not only apotheosizes Listerism