The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine
by Lindsey Fitzharris [Biography Lister]

Set in the Victorian age when pus and inflammation were considered necessary for healing this biography of Joseph Lister is fascinating.

Dr. Joseph Lister, son of Joseph Jackson Lister, an optician who made great strides in the value of microscopes, was a proponent of cleanliness in hospitals and in particular the operating room. Even though most of his colleagues at the time felt his methods were time consuming and unneeded, he persevered and changed how surgery was done. He was truly the father of modern surgery. When Lister died, he’d asked that all his personal papers be destroyed, but his nephew refused and because of that we have this wonderful book about not only his great achievements, but also his personal life as well.

Fitzharris does an excellent job of describing him and his life as well as explaining life during the era. If you like biographies, or medical history books, you’ll love this title.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox, by Jennifer Lee Carrell, Yellow Jack: How Yellow Fever Ravaged America and Walter Reed Discovered Its Deadly Secrets, by John R. Pierce or Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It, by Gina Kolata.]

[ publisher’s official The Butchering Art web site ] | [ official Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris web site ]

Recommended by Marcy G.
South Branch Library

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