During the Victorian era, medicine and health care increasingly improved, and with the development of anaesthetics, surgery became increasingly more advanced, as surgeons were able to take time and care with operations, rather than the previous method of performing them as quickly as possible before the patient died from shock.
Glasgow Royal Infirmary, which opened in 1794, and was situated at the head of the city’s medieval high street, had some of the leading names in medicine working within its walls during the Victorian era. However, with all this expertise and the advancements in techniques, why was it that many previously strong and healthy people died after undergoing routine surgery?
Operating theatres at this time were often crowded places, with students watching the procedures, and operations typically being carried out by surgeons wearing their ordinary clothes, and using instruments which had been used on previous patients with only a cursory cleaning in between. With a lack of understanding of infections and the need for cleanliness, hospitals in general were far from the sterile places we know today.
However, Joseph Lister, who was working as Professor of Surgery at Glasgow University, was interested in learning about the nature of infection and decided to try out carbolic acid, which had previously been used for treating sewage. In 1865, Lister tried applying a piece of lint to the wound of an eleven year old boy in Glasgow Royal Infirmary, with great results. In the new Surgical House which had opened in 1861, Joseph Lister, further developed his use of carbolic acid in cleaning instruments and washing hands before and after surgery, revolutionising surgical procedures. Additionally, a student of Lister, William MacEwen, on becoming a full surgeon at the hospital in 1877, introduced the practice of doctors wearing white coats which could be sterilised. Prior to these advancements, it had been more common for patients to die from infection caused by the unhygienic conditions in which the surgical procedure would take place, than to die from the original ailment.
For more information on ‘A Grim Almanac of Glasgow’ by Lynne Wilson, please click here.