Although the results were dramatic—the death rate among Lister’s surgical patients immediately plummeted—antisepsis had provoked reactions of deep skepticism, even fury. In England, Lister had been forced repeatedly to defend his theory against attacks from enraged doctors. “The whole theory of antisepsis is not only absurd,” one surgeon seethed, “it is a positive injury.” Another charged that Lister’s “methods would be a return to the darkest days of ancient surgery.”
