What is the germ theory?

How was Lister's work linked to Pasteur's germ theory?

• a) How was Lister's work linked to Pasteur's germ theory? and b) What other factors helped lead to improvements in surgery? (these questions are relating to the late 19th century and early 20th century!)

• Answer:

  Lister became aware of a report by Pasteur that putrefaction was caused by bacteria with or without the presence of oxygen. He then experimented with carbolic acid, an anti-septic, to sterilize instruments and wounds. He insisted that fellow surgeons wash hands and wear sterile rubber gloves in surgery. You might say pasteur and Semmelweiss were proponents of asepsis, cleaning wounds, hands and instruments, whereas Lister developed anti-sepsis, the sterilization of instruments. Improvements in anesthetics in the late 19th century allowed surgeons to operate more extensively while the patient was asleep, not feeling the pain. Intravenous fluid administration was still rather primitive even in the first decades of the 20th century.