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The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine

Lindsey Fitzharris

4.29 · Rating details · 10,637 ratings · 1,301 reviews

The gripping story of a visionary British surgeon whose quest to unite science and medicine delivered us into the modern world - the safest time to be alive in human history

In The Butchering Art, historian Lindsey Fitzharris recreates a critical turning point in the history of medicine, when Joseph Lister transformed surgery from a brutal, harrowing practice to the safe, v ...more

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Hardcover, 304 pages

Published October 17th 2017 by Allen Lane

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Dec 03, 2017 Julie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, history, e-book, non-fiction, science, health

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris is a 2017 Scientific American/Farrar Straus and Giroux publication.

Ghastly, but fascinating!

In 1846, as surgery became more frequent, deaths occurred more often as well, due to sepsis, and a myriad of other infections, promptingJosheph Lister to examine the prospect that germs, dirty surgical tools, and hospital cleanliness were to blame.

Lister’s antiseptic theories were ground The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris is a 2017 Scientific American/Farrar Straus and Giroux publication.

Ghastly, but fascinating!

In 1846, as surgery became more frequent, deaths occurred more often as well, due to sepsis, and a myriad of other infections, promptingJosheph Lister to examine the prospect that germs, dirty surgical tools, and hospital cleanliness were to blame.

Lister’s antiseptic theories were groundbreaking, but not especially popular. This led to a great deal of medical politics and backlash towards Lister. This is fascinating because of the mindset in the Victorian days by medical professionals.

However, you should be aware that some of the situations described are not for the faint of heart. While not purposely or gratuitously graphic, your imagination can fill in the blanks. I can’t imagine such primitive practices, or the idea that hospitals were not sanitized, especially the surgical tools. It’s very disgusting to think of, and it’s a wonder anyone survived.

Thank goodness for Joseph Lister and his antiseptic theory!! His life is captivating, and his scientific vision paved the way for medical advancements and a massive reduction in loss of life. He didn’t always have the right answers, but he was an amazing trailblazer in medicine and science.

The book has a bleak atmosphere, and conjures up all manner of appalling images, some of which left me feeling a little green around the gills, but ultimately this is an inspiring story, and I for one came away feeling grateful for Lister and his forward thinking and his tenacity in sticking to his guns when he came under fire.

Lister’s personal life is connected to his professional life in many ways, and is examined moderately, but is not the primary focus of the book. Mainly, the book is about Lister’s work, and often reads like a history textbook in some ways, but nevertheless, it is quite absorbing.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys science, health and medicine, or history- and has a strong stomach! ...more

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Dec 11, 2020 Beverly rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Joseph Lister started out as a quiet, self-effacing surgical student, who became one of the most important men in the history of the art. With the help and support of his Quaker father, he began his studies at University College London. Not content with being an ordinary surgeon, Lister wanted to work with and learn from the best in the field. As he moved up in the surgical world, he became sickened and disheartened by the death rate after surgery. No matter how great the skill of the surgeon, m ...more

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Nov 16, 2017 Erin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: november-december

Dr. Joseph Lister became a surgeon in a time in which Germ Theory was considered "Fake News". 19th Century surgery was crude, bloody, painful, and almost always fatal. 19th Century surgery was barbaric. Hospitals were commonly known as death houses and something to be avoided if you had any money. Surgeons didn't wash their hands, tools, clothing, or hospital beds. It was quite common for a surgeon to conduct an autopsy and without washing anything use those same tools to operate on living patie ...more

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Sep 09, 2017 Jamie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own, pathology-medical, 2017

My hardback copy is here!
I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC of this through NetGalley, and seriously, the second I finished it, I went and preordered it. This is one of the best and my favorite books of the year!
Even though I just read this, I'm already rereading this.
In short, This book really delves into the Victorian surgery practices and thanks to Joseph Lister, for forever changing what we know about surgery today. Seriously highlighted and now tabbing seems like half of the book. S ...more

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Mar 12, 2018 Rebecca rated it really liked it

Shelves: biographical, medical, science-tech, wellcome-prize-shortlist, history, reviewed-for-blog, read-via-netgalley

(3.5) Surgery was a gory business with a notably high fatality rate well into the nineteenth century. Surgeons had the fastest hands in the West, but their victims were still guaranteed at least a few minutes of utter agony as they had a limb amputated or a tumor removed, and the danger wasn’t over after they were sewn up either: most patients soon died from hospital infections. The development of anesthetics and antiseptic techniques helped to change all that.

Fitzharris opens with the vivid and (3.5) Surgery was a gory business with a notably high fatality rate well into the nineteenth century. Surgeons had the fastest hands in the West, but their victims were still guaranteed at least a few minutes of utter agony as they had a limb amputated or a tumor removed, and the danger wasn’t over after they were sewn up either: most patients soon died from hospital infections. The development of anesthetics and antiseptic techniques helped to change all that.

Fitzharris opens with the vivid and rather gruesome scene of a mid-thigh amputation performed by Robert Liston at University College Hospital in London in 1846. This surgery was different, though: it only took 28 seconds, but the patient felt nothing thanks to the ether he had been administered. He woke up a few minutes later asking when the procedure would begin. In the audience that day was Joseph Lister, who would become one of Britain’s most admired surgeons.

Lister came from a Quaker family and, after being educated at University College London, started his career in Edinburgh. Different to many medical professionals of the time, he was fascinated by microscopy and determined to find out what caused deadly infections. Carbolic acid and catgut ligatures were two of Lister’s main innovations that helped to fight infection. In fact, whether we realize it or not, his legacy is forever associated with antiseptics: Listerine mouthwash (invented in 1879) is named after him, and the Johnson brothers of Johnson & Johnson fame started their business mass-producing sterile surgical dressings after attending one of Lister’s lectures.

My interest tailed off a bit after the first third, as the book starts going into more depth about Lister’s work and personal life: he married his boss’s daughter and moved from Edinburgh to Glasgow and then back to London. However, the best is yet to come: the accounts of the surgeries he performed on his sister (a mastectomy that bought her three more years of life) and Queen Victoria (removing an orange-sized abscess from under her arm) are terrific. The chapter on treating the queen in secret at Balmoral Castle in 1871 was my overall favorite.

I was that kid who loved going to Civil War battlefields and medical museums and looking at all the different surgical saws and bullet fragments in museum cases, so I reveled in the gory details here but was not as interested in the biographical material. Do be sure you have a strong stomach before you try reading the prologue over a meal. This is a comparable read to The Remedy, about the search for a cure to tuberculosis.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck. ...more

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Dec 10, 2020 Johann (jobis89) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It’s no secret that I love learning about the Victorian period, so hearing about the progression of Victorian hospitals from smelly and disgusting places where surgeons didn’t even clean their aprons or instruments between patients to the discovery of microorganisms and the introduction of antiseptics was ridiculously fascinating to me. My microbiology-loving brain was having a field day.

I learnt so many interesting facts and tidbits while listening to The Butchering Art. The kinds of facts and ...more

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Jun 29, 2018 Stephen Robert Collins rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

If about to go into Hospital for big emergency operation & you are really shitting bricks? Congestions you have chosen the perfect bedside read if wore not scared before then just what you need to put you at your easy .
A book about what happened to be in the 19th century theatres 'the gateways to Death ' . In this the year of 70th anniversary of NHS this book shows what the Labour government after Winston Churchill lost the election & WWII helped to bring forth.
This about Joseph Lister a Quaker ...more

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Oct 18, 2017 Book Riot Community added it · review of another edition

Shelves: new-books-liberty-s-recs

When is it a better time to read a gruesome history of medicine than right before Halloween??? Fitzharris spares no details documenting Joseph Lister and his campaign to teach the medical profession that germs really existed. (Before Lister, doctors didn’t wash their hands or their medical instruments all that often. Blergh.) It’s also an illuminating look at a profession one looked upon with skepticism, a profession that often relied on graveyards to supply their knowledge…

Backlist bump: Cranio ...more

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May 24, 2020 Meagan ✊🏼 Blacklivesmatter ✊🏼Blacktranslivesmatter rated it really liked it · review of another edition

#5 out 12 for my non fiction goal for the year
So far I've been on track with reading one non-fiction book per month. Let's hope I can keep this up!

This was really good. I read a similar book called Quackery by Lydia Kang and it amazes me the crazy shit these surgeons used to do to people. I couldn't imagine being sick during this time period. The medical field has definitely come a long way in such a short time.

Seems like I'm into history of medicine and the medical field. I will probably pick ...more

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Feb 18, 2019 Netta rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history-and-biography, read-2019

We live in the world changed, challenged and improved by many people whose stories left untold or, way too often, unheard. We praise those who let us the opportunity to explore stars and distant galaxies, we cheer those who cured smallpox, we are awed by those who contoured the map of our world and gave names to all known species. And yet how much do we know about oh so many seemingly smaller discoveries which, in retrospect, made a bigger-than-life impact and changed the quality of our lives fo ...more

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May 07, 2018 BAM Endlessly Booked rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, science, audiobooks

Audio # 50

So while you're reading you'll become fascinated and want to share with others who will find you ghoulish
People around you may protest the audio version
Sometimes you may find it hard to finish your lunch while you're reading
...more

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Jul 22, 2017 Roisin Cure rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A brother of mine had an advance copy of The Butchering Art and was going to send it to my daughter - his goddaughter - as she has a taste for the gory, and has expressed an interest in studying medicine. "Not so fast," I said, "I think I'll have that." So he sent it to me.

Is there a word that is the opposite of genocide? That's what Lister did.

The Butchering Art is the story of how one man - who stood on the shoulders of giants - transformed medical operations from something of enormous risk i A brother of mine had an advance copy of The Butchering Art and was going to send it to my daughter - his goddaughter - as she has a taste for the gory, and has expressed an interest in studying medicine. "Not so fast," I said, "I think I'll have that." So he sent it to me.

Is there a word that is the opposite of genocide? That's what Lister did.

The Butchering Art is the story of how one man - who stood on the shoulders of giants - transformed medical operations from something of enormous risk into something that none of us needs to face with dread. He was the perfect confluence of character, heritage and circumstance; we often hear of villains whose circumstances contrived to turn them wicked, but seldom do we hear about good people whose circumstances allowed them to fulfill their potential and reach dizzying heights of benevolence.

From the moment the book began, I was hooked. Each chapter sets the scene for the tale to follow: while other books might give you a rather dry context for what's to come, not Dr Fitzharris. She describes the scene where the action is to be set in a way that makes you feel like you're there - the cold, the snowy streets, the stuffy, stinking atmosphere in a filthy operating room...if you ever dream about what it was like to live in times gone by, the author's words will transport you in glorious technicolor. Her uncanny ability to do this continues throughout the book, and I can now conjure up images of nineteenth-century medical circles in a way that I never thought possible. So from an atmospheric point of view, it's a virtuoso performance.

The subject of the book, Joseph Lister, is introduced in a timely manner - just far enough in to give you the social context of his arrival. The journey he took is sensitively written, and you feel for him, especially if you've ever experienced the frustration of self-belief when you are surrounded by naysayers. His life, and his incredible work, are nothing short of utterly inspiring. I feel a huge sense of gratitude to Lister (and of course to the poor, unsung heroes who went before him, like the Hungarian doctor whose name I have already forgotten, like everyone else). The story of Lister's life is one that gives me comfort on many levels. That he did what he did; that it's possible to do something really good and lasting with your life; that you need to remember the bigger picture, even when things aren't going you way.

Another thing I loved about the book is that your curiosity is often piqued by the circumstances of bit-players in the book. For example, a woman is stabbed. The point of this is to tell you how her wound was treated, but the author knows that you want to know whether she got justice, and so she tells you just enough to satisfy, but not so much that the story digresses too much. The same approach is given with other minor characters, and it's perfectly judged.

Yes, the book is very gory, and that isn't my cup of tea, but you quickly get used to that (like most animal lovers the only bit I found hard to read was a description of vivisection on an animal, but it was done in the genuine pursuit of medical advancement, and I have to try to remember that). Besides, the gore and so on was an intrinsic part of Victorian life and is an important contribution to the setting of the scene. The place must have stunk between one thing and another. I don't want to give too much away, but imagine if your doctor came in to operate on you in a filthy apron covered in bits of decaying body, with filthy knives, and to whom it would not occur to wash his hands?

Normally I fall asleep the second I hit the pillow, and I have had late nights and early starts over the last couple of weeks, but I still indulged in a few pages every night - it was a real treat and I hung on every word. I thank the author deeply for the time and effort she gave to writing and researching this book. I only wish she had written an extensive library of such tomes.

A fantastic read that stays with you long after you turn the last page.

...more

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May 15, 2018 Jill Hutchinson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: biography

The title of this book is so appropriate for the surgical environment of the mid to late 1800s.......going under the surgeons knife could almost guarantee that the patient would die. Limb amputation seemed to be the craze for anything from varicose veins to a broken ankle and surgery was performed in the most unsanitary of conditions. Most patients died of sepsis. But the medical community could not or would not grasp the reason for the onset of infection and was loathe to accept such a concept ...more

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Jun 17, 2019 Rachel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

3.5 rounded up. I found the bits about medical procedures and treatments fascinating (and alarming). Doctors were doing some pretty grisly, backward stuff, essentially groping along in the dark trying to save lives and ending many in the process (although infection would probably have done the job anyway). Joseph Lister is one of the scientists who shined a light and helped lay the foundation for modern medicine. We've come a long way, and it makes me wonder how far we'll go in the future, what ...more

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Jan 23, 2019 Jaksen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Sometimes I pick up a book just based on the title or the cover. I don't know why I grabbed this one, but glad I did. A fascinating look into medical science circa the 1800's into the early twentieth century. Amazing stuff.

You don't need to have a medical or science background to follow this book. The writing is down-to-Earth, solid, succinct, and specific only when it needs to be. I do have a science background, but I learned a lot about history, medicine, surgery, contagion, epidemics, and so Sometimes I pick up a book just based on the title or the cover. I don't know why I grabbed this one, but glad I did. A fascinating look into medical science circa the 1800's into the early twentieth century. Amazing stuff.

You don't need to have a medical or science background to follow this book. The writing is down-to-Earth, solid, succinct, and specific only when it needs to be. I do have a science background, but I learned a lot about history, medicine, surgery, contagion, epidemics, and so on. (This is the perfect book for anyone writinga book about this time period.)

In the early to mid-1800's more people died from the after-effects of surgery than from the surgery itself. This book paints a horrific picture of what they went through when they needed a limb amputated or a tumor removed. The surgeons were adept and swift with the knife, in order to reduce the patient's pain and suffering. (Anesthesia wasn't introduced until 1846.) But the results were often horrible. One surgeon, checking in on his surgery patients from a few days before, went through the hospital ward looking for them as his assistant kept telling him, no, that one didn't survive. No, not that one either, or that one. Finally the surgeon asked: how many did survive? Um, none did, doctor.

So though they knew their stuff, in terms of technique, the surgeons were all missing the BIG picture. Infection. Contagion. Open wounds, dirty bandages. Cleanliness? It wasn't anywhere near to godliness. Dirty scalpels and tools, surgeons who didn't wash their hands, helpers (or dressers) who wore filthy clothes and operations often done in theaters to the view of other doctors, medical students - and! - the general public. Hospitals were vast incubators of germs which spread rapidly through the wards. in fact, hospitals in general were so bad the wealthy often had surgeons come to their homes and operate on the dining room table. Um, no kidding.

(Florence Nightingale hadn't started doing her stuff yet either - cleanliness, antiseptics, clean uniforms, keeping patients well-fed and in clean sheets and clothes, etc.) Therefore, once an infection set up in a hospital ward - like gangrene, for example - it could sweep through killing more than half the patients. A nightmare. Surgery was little more than butchery and the public, the doctors, the patients, simply accepted that was the way it had to be.

Until Mr. Pasteur, and Joseph Lister, who using Pasteur's work discovered a cleaner, safer, (gentler), and antiseptic way to treat surgery patients. Of course there were those who were skeptics, and ridiculed and derided Lister at first. (These, like today, tended to be older surgeons, or those more firmly entrenched in the ways they 'were taught'.) But Lister was also a lecturer and a teacher, and slowly he reached enough younger doctors and surgeons - and a handful of influential older ones - to convince them to try his methods: treat surgical wounds after surgery, not wait until an infection set in. Cover them with clean bandages. Use carbolic acid (diluted with water) to keep wounds from festering, to kill the 'germs' which Lister believed were spread through the air. In time, surgery became a less fearful prospect.

Anyhow, the book outlines this quite well, and in an interesting manner. I have no trouble imagining those days and the fear one might have when a simple 'cut' on the finger might lead to death, or when one in ten women died in childbirth during outbreaks of puerperal fever. (If only the doctors had simply washed their hands before attending a birth!)

Five antiseptic stars ...more

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Apr 20, 2018 Paul rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-read-2018

Surgery prior to the nineteenth-century was brutal and messy. There was no anaesthetic and therefore the best people in the business were the fastest who could remove a leg from the hip in just one minute; yes one minute! Occasionally the knives and other tools were wiped before being used on the next victim, I mean patient, but were often not. Tables were normally covered in the blood and gore of the previous unlucky patients and if the shock of the operation didn't kill you, then the infection Surgery prior to the nineteenth-century was brutal and messy. There was no anaesthetic and therefore the best people in the business were the fastest who could remove a leg from the hip in just one minute; yes one minute! Occasionally the knives and other tools were wiped before being used on the next victim, I mean patient, but were often not. Tables were normally covered in the blood and gore of the previous unlucky patients and if the shock of the operation didn't kill you, then the infection that you got probably would. Something had to change and it was a man called Joseph Lister, a quiet Quaker Surgeon who was to start the medical revolution.

He witnessed the beginnings of this revolution when he saw a man operated on under a crude anaesthetic; the operation was fast but he felt no pain waking later to ask when they were going to start. He was educated at University College London initially studying botany, but then registered as a medical student and graduated with honours as Bachelor of Medicine, and entered the Royal College of Surgeons. His first post was at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary where he became the first assistant to James Syme and ended up marrying his daughter.

At this time the commonly accepted knowledge was that infections were airborne, caused by bad air, or miasma. Hospitals were aired to let out the bad air, but there were almost no facilities for washing hands and the bloodstained gowns were worn to show their experience to the watching crowds. But the understanding of how infections are passed was beginning to change with the work of Loius Pasteur. Whilst at the University of Glasgow, Lister undertook his own experiments and realised that cleaning the tools and the area around the wound with carbolic acid. He was one of the first to ensure that the surgeons under him wore clean gloves and wash their hands before and after each surgery. Just these simple acts meant that your chances of survival went from negligible to quite high. As with anything, changing the status quo is often trying to move a mountain, but the new intake were those that were inspired by the work that Lister was doing and were embracing the new way of doing things. Not everyone thought that he was right, so much so that the Lancet cautioned others against his radical ideas. Slowly his ideas were accepted with significant support from others, and he even operated on Queen Victoria herself to remove an abscess.

There is lots of blood, pus and gore in here as Fitzharris does not hold back when discussing the way things were; not one to read when you are having your lunch! Rightly he was called the father of modern surgery as countless people have benefited from his research and innovations. All these new ideas he developed meant that you were less likely to die just from being in the hospital. It is one of the better books that I have read on medical history, Fitzharris writes in an engaging way on a subject that is not going to appeal to everyone, but in amongst all the blood is the fascinating story of Joseph Lister. Can highly recommend this. 4.5 Stars ...more

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Apr 20, 2018 Nancy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018

Finished: 20.04.2018
Genre: non-fiction
Rating: A+++
Review: This is a riveting read.
I read it in one day.
First few pages squimish but keep reading!
Highly recommended.

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Aug 06, 2018 Erin *Help I’m Reading and I Can’t Get Up* rated it liked it · review of another edition

Mostly interesting, though it gets a little snoozy in the middle

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Mar 14, 2020 Becky rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, yay-science, highly-recommended, non-fiction, 2020, reviewed

A couple years ago I listened to Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine and loved it. I don't know why but I find the history of medicine and surgery utterly fascinating. Revolting and traumatic and horrific... but fascinating. These books are NOT for the faint of heart or the squeamish... but I loved them nonetheless.

There was a lot of overlap in this book with Dr. Mutter's Marvels. I was regaled once again with the story of Robert Liston pe A couple years ago I listened to Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine and loved it. I don't know why but I find the history of medicine and surgery utterly fascinating. Revolting and traumatic and horrific... but fascinating. These books are NOT for the faint of heart or the squeamish... but I loved them nonetheless.

There was a lot of overlap in this book with Dr. Mutter's Marvels. I was regaled once again with the story of Robert Liston performing the only surgery in history with a 300% mortality rate, which was just as amusing the second time. For me. Probably not for his poor victims. RIP.

But, as gruesome as it is, that kind of story is actually essential to the wider understanding of the prevailing ideas and concepts of surgery in the 1800s. It was... unpleasant. There was no understanding of spreading disease and infection from one person to another through unclean hands or clothes or surgical tools, and Liston's claim to fame surgery illustrates this perfectly.

Both Dr. Mutter and Dr. Lister came to the same conclusions during their careers, which were that doctors tended to make people sick by failure to adhere to cleanliness standards (though to be fair, there WERE no standards, and generally having blood and other... bodily detritus on ones clothes was seen as a mark of experience and pride in one's surgical craft), and both men set out to do whatever they could to rectify it. They both ended up taking very different roads through their careers, but both were absolutely men that are well deserving of being remembered by history for their contributions to medicine. Lister is obviously more well-known because his name was borrowed for Listerine, the well-known floor cleaner, no wait... sorry, the dandruff cure. Whoops, I mean the mouthwash that we probably all have in our bathrooms right now. (Seriously, those are a few of the uses that Listerine was marketed for way back in the day.)

I'm not sure if these books presented these men in such a positive light because of their generally positive and life-saving influences over medicinal practices, but I tend to think that they both were of a similar mindset of seeing the PEOPLE they were treating and not just the condition or injury. And I think that made a lot of difference in the way that they saw medicine and the practice of it. They were both described as being very kind and courteous to their patients, with a warm bedside manner, and a diligence to their methods that was unusual in a climate of "Get the procedure done as quickly as possible and get to the next one." Lister did have the advantage of having ether available for more of his career than Mutter did, but either way, both should be commended for the lengths that they went to in order to make their patients as comfortable as possible, both during and after surgery. And considering that both not only saved but improved quality of life post-surgery while doing so by using their clean and antiseptic methods, I think that it says a lot about these men and the respect and value that they added to the field of medicine. It would not be the same today without them.

On that note... It has been a bit strange listening to this book while we're currently in the midst of a pandemic. I know it isn't the same thing, surgical infections to viral infections spread person to person... but it is similar enough to have been something that I thought about as I read this, because without people like Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister and others who prevailed against closed minded men who didn't want to believe in their work, we would not know anything about the hidden world of microbes and organisms too small to see with the naked eye. Can you imagine how different the world would be today without their work? The population sure wouldn't be over 7 billion people, that's for sure. So... yeah, I've been washing the hell out of my hands lately, staying home more than my usual introverted homebody self normally does, and giving thanks to the people of science who have helped us get where we are today. Even if it's scary. But it's a scary that we will eventually learn how to cope with, because it's a scary we can see and learn about, and won't forever be a mystery. Malaria is named such because it used to be believed to come from bad air. Now we know how it is spread and how to combat and treat it. We'll get there too with Covid-19. We just have to trust in science, and in the meantime try not to go to either extreme: panic or apathy.

It's easy to accept the state of the world as the norm when it's what you're used to, and that's why a lot of scientific discovery has had an uphill battle. We still tend to think that way now. Change is hard and sometimes scary, but often there is a much greater good that can come from it.

Anyway, if you are even remotely interested in the history of Victorian era/ 19th century medicine, or science, either one of these books would be right up your alley. I will admit that this book was a bit harder for me at times because of the nature of animal experimentation that was necessary back then (and it WAS necessary, but it's not fun to listen to it described). But aside from that, and the grossness just in general... I'm not selling this book very well am I?

Read it anyway. It's worth it. :) ...more

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Mar 09, 2018 Barbara (The Bibliophage) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history, science-and-medicine, 2018, biography, own-digital, non-fiction

If you’ve ever used the bright blue or green mouthwash with the antiseptic taste, then you have benefitted from the expertise of Joseph Lister. More importantly, if you’ve had surgery in a spotlessly clean operating room with a surgeon gowned and gloved up, you owe that to Joseph Lister. Lindsey Fitzharris tells his story The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine.

Lister began his surgical journey at a time when the two most desired qualities of If you’ve ever used the bright blue or green mouthwash with the antiseptic taste, then you have benefitted from the expertise of Joseph Lister. More importantly, if you’ve had surgery in a spotlessly clean operating room with a surgeon gowned and gloved up, you owe that to Joseph Lister. Lindsey Fitzharris tells his story The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine.

Lister began his surgical journey at a time when the two most desired qualities of a surgeon were speed and strength. The speed to cut (very often an amputation) as quickly as possible. This was needed because no anesthesia was used—it hadn’t been discovered yet. And the strength to hold the limb, pull it a specific way, and cut at the same time. As Fitzharris says in the book’s subtitle, it was absolutely grisly. Surgeons were more like butchers than skilled practitioners, and their experience often came from battlefields.

During his youth, Lister also learned a great deal about microscopes from his father. The senior Lister had a passion for making them work, and passed on this fascination to his son. Thus, the younger Lister’s lifelong work was established strongly in the investigative sciences.

Yet Lister also cared about his surgical patients’ survival. His initial training was in London, a city with a tremendous reputation for surgery. In the Victorian era, it was also an extremely dirty city. The quantity of people combined with industry affected everyone no matter their social class.

Despite the success of the actual operation, a significant portion of London’s surgical patients died from post-operative infections. Medical professionals believed infection was caused by all kinds of things. But none of those things included germs, cross-contamination between patients, or lack of sterile surgical environments.

Lister was obsessed with the scientific reason for infections, including a desire to find a solution. Fitzharris explains how each step of his career path affected the outcome of his research. She details the research into microorganisms he performed. And she discusses how the his mentors helped him, while his detractors simultaneously bedeviled his efforts. At first Lister just had to convince the people in charge of his ward and hospital. But ultimately, Lister knew he had to convince surgeons around the country, the continent, and the world.

Lister’s story is as much about how a scientific innovation becomes commonplace as it is about the actual practice of using antiseptics in medicine. It was a rocky road. At first, Lister tried publishing his findings in the medical journals of the time. After meeting with much resistance, he realized that his method needed to be taught in a hands-on manner. So he adjusted his approach and began with his own medical students. From there, the concepts began to gain traction.

Fitzharris shows how Lister progressed from a medical student with a stutter to a man of stature in his profession. For a fundamentally unassuming man, Lister’s persistence changed the world. He changed surgery from something that generally killed the patient to a mostly successful part of many people’s lives.

I found The Butchering Art to be readable, interesting, and even inspiring. Having been a surgical patient last year, I couldn’t help but put myself in the dismal shoes of Fitzharris’ early examples. And I certainly gave a words of thanks to Joseph Lister for his persistence and perspicacity. I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of medicine and surgery.

Thanks to NetGalley, Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Lindsey Fitzharris for the opportunity to read the digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. ...more

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Feb 09, 2020 G. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-four-to-fives

Reality-slash-history is gnarlier than fiction.

The Butchering Art is a great read. It's not for the squeamish, but if you want to know how hospitals evolved from houses of death into healing institutions, I couldn't recommend this enough.

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Apr 07, 2019 Andy rated it liked it · review of another edition

This was nicely written with a Dickensian level of detail. I feel it got bogged down though with background research. It's not until page 160--out of 234-- that Lister even starts working on antisepsis. To me, especially with the science denialism going on in the world now, the most interesting aspect of the story is how Lister convinced people to apply Pasteur's Germ Theory to surgery. Unfortunately, this content is shorter and more rushed than I was hoping for. We're told about major speeches ...more

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Dec 15, 2017 Truman32 rated it liked it · review of another edition

The 19th century was a pretty gross time to be alive. To begin with, nobody knew about germs. Just imagine it, all those bare pimply Victorian era bottoms sitting on public lavatory seats without laying down a thick protective covering of toilet paper first. Ick.

The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris digs into this time period like a 19th century leech collector would dig through the fecal sewage overflowing the Thames river seeking new merchandise to sell. Fitzharris’s nonfictional account f The 19th century was a pretty gross time to be alive. To begin with, nobody knew about germs. Just imagine it, all those bare pimply Victorian era bottoms sitting on public lavatory seats without laying down a thick protective covering of toilet paper first. Ick.

The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris digs into this time period like a 19th century leech collector would dig through the fecal sewage overflowing the Thames river seeking new merchandise to sell. Fitzharris’s nonfictional account focuses on Joseph Lister (immortalized by Listerine mouthwash) as he attempts again and again to make the pigheaded medical cliques of the time actually believe they should wash up a little. Clean that septic blood and viscera from their cutting implements. Maybe throw their blood-streaked, putrid surgical apron that they got last Father’s Day (with an embroidered: “will operate for beer”) into the laundry once in a while. Now, I don’t read a lot of historical nonfiction, but when I do, I prefer they are gross. And The Butchering Art is extraordinarily/wonderfully foul.

The Victorian Age is a time where there were no anesthetics and surgery consisted of frequent amputations. Doctors were prized on speed not cleanliness. They were the original two-minute men. This swiftness, while not valued by their wives in the sack, was greatly appreciated by their patients as they hacked through the large bones in their legs, hips, and arms with nothing to stop the torment. Most of these patients survived the extreme agony of these painful operations only to die from infections a few days later. And that is where Lister and his belief in germs come in.

The horrors of surgery at this time make even my first date taking Suzy Schmidt to the 5th grade Winter Dance seem tame and dull (and that ended up with her ponytail stuck in my braces and her mother’s Volvo exploding). The Butchering Art goes into these details in harrowing Technicolor. It is all very fascinating and graphic if somewhat clinical. It was reminiscent of one of my favorite books of 2016, Bellevue. But, while that book shows the patterns of history that still echo today, The Butchering Art seems satisfied just getting to the gross bits. This book is a quick moving gander into the horror of the past and it will make you praise the Good Lord above that we even made it this far as a civilization.
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Apr 22, 2018 Laura rated it liked it · review of another edition

I could say a lot of things about this book but by far the most prevailing revelation I had was that it totally changed my idea of what kind of world the Samantha stories from American Girl took place in.

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Nov 13, 2017 Meaghan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: for-review, own

I am in love with this book. Based on the description, I figured I would like it, but it is even better than I imagined.

I have been told by others that I should have been a doctor. I do have a knack for diagnosis and I am not squeamish when it comes to household wounds. I’m the one you want to do surgery to get that splinter out. But I really had no interest in lots more years of school or dealing with people (ugh!) all day. Basically, I wanted to be like House and just solve the puzzle but stil ...more

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Feb 21, 2018 Graychin rated it liked it · review of another edition

I’m afraid that my wife and I are the only people that ever watched The Knick, which is a real shame. It was an excellent show, a Steven Soderbergh project in which Clive Owen played a drug-addicted genius surgeon at New York’s Knickerbocker Hospital circa 1900. The Knick only ran for two seasons (2014-2015). Thankfully, however, the storyline resolved itself nicely at the end of the second, so that you need not feel let down too much by the fact that season three never happened.

There’s a great ...more

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Jul 22, 2019 Mary Alice rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history, biography, public-health, reviewed, science-math, british-history

I enjoyed the book, and am glad to know more about Joseph Lister's life and work.

I think Fitzharris should have included detailed definitions of "putrefaction", "suppuration" and "fermentation". I needed more thorough explanations of how these three concepts relate to each other. And I thought that the author could have explained the relationship between Pasteur's work and Lister's work a lot better.

Though not essential, I would have liked a bit more detail of Lister's long marriage. ...more

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Apr 30, 2020 Yara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, written-reviews, history, medicine-and-sciene

While at times it depicted in gruesome detail what medicine and particularly surgery were like during Victorian, England;The Butchering Art by Lindsay Fitzharris is an incredible, engrossing, and fascinating account of how Joseph Lister transformed the butchering art of surgery into an actual science- based practice. Along the way he not only revolutionized surgery but medicine and hospitalization in general. His development of an antiseptic method to treat wounds and help the healing process af While at times it depicted in gruesome detail what medicine and particularly surgery were like during Victorian, England;The Butchering Art by Lindsay Fitzharris is an incredible, engrossing, and fascinating account of how Joseph Lister transformed the butchering art of surgery into an actual science- based practice. Along the way he not only revolutionized surgery but medicine and hospitalization in general. His development of an antiseptic method to treat wounds and help the healing process after surgery decreased the almost unimaginable mortality rates after surgery or hospitalization that were the norm in the 19th century.

I work in the field of medicine, however, it’s on the administrative side so I still get grossed out with highly detail descritos of wounds and such. Having said that here were only two or three instances in which I had to skip forward because the details were a little too gruesome for me. Reading this book gave me a real appreciation for how far we’ve come. We’ve gone from a time where a surgen or a doctor would go from patient to patient without washing their hands or the tools to a time where (at least in most places) aseptic practices are the expectations.

But it also made me realized how far we still have to go. I was enthralled by Lister’s story. He was an incredible person, a brilliant surgeon and research who received many accolades throughout his career all the while remaining relatively humble which can be attributed in part to his Quaker upbringing. Lister was never satisfied; once he discovered an antiseptic method that improved the prognosis for his patients he continued to evolve it, fine running it so that he was providing the best care possible.

Lister trained during a time where there was no hygienic and sanitary practices at hospital (the filth!) and no disinfecting of any kind. The mortality was extremely high because infections were commonplace. Early in his career this started to bother Lister, he wanted to understand what caused infections and how to prevent them. You would think most surgeon were preoccupied with the same issues but you would be wrong. Most surgeons thought this was par for the course. Their training was geared to desensitize them to the deaths of their patients. Surgery was very rare, first because there was no anesthesia (1840s’ that ether was introduced) and second because the mortality rate from surgery was so high. It was practically a guaranteed death sentence unless you were lucky. By the time Lister had completed his training anesthesia was wildly used so the number of surgeries began to increase but the mortality rate still remained high. So, he went about finding away to keep his patients alive.

I loved the book from start to finish. It’s great mix of both history and science but it’s written in a very relatable way. You don’t have to be part of the field of medicine to understand it and enjoy it.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough!

I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by Ralph Lister (I’m not sure if he’s related to Joseph Lister). The narrator was great, his American accents could use some improving but it didn’t take away from the great performance. ...more

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Mar 11, 2019 Abigail rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

i would be such a good old timey doctor

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Jun 06, 2019 Helen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, medicine, biography, historical

Fascinating read. Books like this always remind me of how grateful we should be for modern medicine, we take so much for granted these days. Were it not for people like Lister there'd be an awful lot more suffering in the world. ...more

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About Lindsey Fitzharris

Lindsey Fitzharris

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As a little girl, I used to drag my grandmother from cemetery to cemetery so that I could hunt ghosts. Some might say I was obsessed with death from an early age, but I’d like to think I was simply fascinated with the past, and with the people who lived there. Thus began a lifelong obsession with history.

I received a doctorate in the history of science, medicine and technology from the University ...more

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“The best that can be said about Victorian hospitals is that they were a slight improvement over their Georgian predecessors. That’s hardly a ringing endorsement when one considers that a hospital’s “Chief Bug-Catcher”—whose job it was to rid the mattresses of lice—was paid more than its surgeons.” — 10 likes

“Remarkably, Bichat was able to describe and name twenty-one membranes in the human body, including connective, muscle, and nerve tissue, before he died accidentally in 1802 after falling down the steps of his own hospital.” — 3 likes

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