With Robert Liston’s ether triumph, Lister had just witnessed the elimination of the first of the two major obstacles to successful surgery—that it could now be performed without inflicting pain. 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.
