Lister’s first instrument case had everything a novice surgeon would need at the start of his training: bone saws to hack off limbs; forceps to pick apart tissue; probes to root out bullets and foreign bodies. But there was one tool Lister had carried with him to UCL that very few in his class possessed: his microscope. Under his father’s tutelage, he had grown into a very capable microscopist and learned to trust in the scientific instrument’s powers.
