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

by Lindsey Fitzharris

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is almost certainly wrong. —ARTHUR C. CLARKE

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. —JOHN LOCKE

Robert Wood Johnson first became aware of antisepsis when he attended Lister’s lecture at the International Medical Congress in Philadelphia. Inspired by what he had heard that day, Johnson joined forces with his two brothers James and Edward, and founded a company to manufacture the first sterile surgical dressings and sutures mass-produced according to Lister’s methods. They named it Johnson & Johnson.