as Lister was changing Victoria’s dressings, he noticed that pus had formed underneath the linen that he had placed over the surgical wound. Lister needed to act quickly to prevent infection from setting in. Spying the atomizer, he had an idea. He took the rubber tubing off the apparatus, soaked it overnight in carbolic acid, and inserted it into the wound the following morning in order to drain the pus. The following day, Lister’s nephew wrote that his uncle “rejoiced to find nothing escape [from the wound] unless it were a drop or so of clear serum.” Lister himself later claimed that this
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