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Medical voyeurism was nothing new. It arose in the dimly lit anatomical amphitheaters of the Renaissance, where, in front of transfixed spectators, the bodies of executed criminals were dissected as an additional punishment for their crimes.
Public dissections were theatrical performances,
Operating theaters were gateways to death.
Liston could remove a leg in less than thirty seconds, and in order to keep both hands free, he often clasped the bloody knife between his teeth while working.
Liston had learned to steel himself against the cries and protests of those strapped to the blood-spattered operating table.
Inspired by what he had seen on the afternoon of December 21, the deeply perceptive Joseph Lister would soon embark on devoting the rest of his life to elucidating the causes and nature of postoperative infections and finding a solution for them. In the shadow of one of the profession’s last great butchers, another surgical revolution was about to begin.
The dagger’s point, the last two inches of which were razor-sharp, was created to cut through the skin, thick muscles, tendons, and tissues of the thigh with a single slice. It is little wonder that for Jack the Ripper, the “Liston knife” was the weapon of choice for the gutting of victims during his killing spree in 1888.
What a charming task, to sit quietly down in the apartment and take apart this master-piece of workmanship; to call each piece by its proper name; know its proper place and work; to wonder over the multitude of organs pressed together, so diverse in operations, yet each executing its appointed task in the grand confederation. —D. HAYES AGNEW
