#robert liston

FUCK

Celebrated surgeon of early 19th century Britain who not only improved on surgical techniques (Liston knives are used for amputation to this day) but also performed one of the first operations using ether as an anesthetic and thus helped popularize its use.

Today however he's mostly remembered for outlandish incidents, which have little to none actual historical basis.

Every time I hear/read informational content that mentions him as the guy that killed three people during an operation (tm), I internally die a little.

There are no primary sources for the 300 % mortality incident. If such a thing truly did happen, it would certainly have been mentioned, at least by some medical journals at the time. The historian Dr. Michael Brown did a thorough deep-dive on the claim:

[..] account of an apocryphal operation in which his obsession with speed supposedly led to the deaths of the patient, an assistant, and a bystander are taken, virtually word for word, from a book written by the anaesthetist and Doctor in the House author Richard Gordon (1921 - 2017). This book, Great Medical Disasters (1983), which contains a brief three-page sketch of the man, is the source of much modern Liston folklore.

-Emotions and Surgery in Britain, 1792-1912

In the few sources that are given for this 1983 book, there are no mentions of the 300% mortality operation. It appears that Gordon pulled the story out of his ass made it up or decided to write down an unsubstantiated claim he must have heard somewhere.

The sources that Gordon actually does mention in his book, which primarily talk of Liston's exaggerated showmanship (such him commanding the spectators to time him before an operation) were also written in the early 20th century. They appear to have been greatly exaggerated and do not seem to line up much with actual accounts of the time.

Now, I am not saying that Liston was a perfect man, far from it. But this idea that he was carelessly speedrunning surgeries and cutting people left and right is not really accurate

One would expect me to talk more about one of my niche interests- 1800s medical history- outside of a specific circle and this blog, but I actually don’t. 

Why? Because the conversations I have drive me crazy. People act like it’s purely barbaric. There were a fair few problematic things by modern standards, but isn’t it said to not put modern standards on the past?  (within reason) 

By the time period I focus on, the humoral theory was actively on its way out, with stragglers up into the mid 1800s— they were then turning to observational/diagnostic practices. Sanitation was also starting to become prioritized, with Lister’s Theory popping up and becoming the standard not long after. Vaccines had been invented by this point, thanks to people like Jenner. 

A lot of the surgeries by educated physicians were thought through. The idea of cutting off limbs entirely was because people could die of shock and blood loss if they went digging or attempted to fix it. Statistics changed when a clean wound was created, instead of trying to fix an old one. And many did not cut limbs immediately. The mindset I see the most is that if they could save it, they would. And the death statistics we see used? Most of that was infections that happened before and after. The surgery itself didn't have as high of a risk. They had no means to fully clean a wound like how we do now by that point. 

Carbolic soap (especially after the 1860s), alcohol, and diluted vinegar was being used by some to clean when they could. It wasn’t perfect, but it’s very clear to me that many were doing what they could with the knowledge they had— and quite a few were actively experimenting to better it. (Sometimes to the detriment of others..) They just didn’t find the right combinations by that point.

Those cadavers in jars people seem to turn their nose up to? That was one of the few ways someone could learn. By preserving the anomaly, it could be shown so others could see what to look for. The same with wax models. Even today, donated bodies are used to show anatomy. Only the methods of preservation and obtaining cadavers are different. 

Yes, there was a disturbingly large lack of consent, especially for minorities, and some advancements were blatantly ignored (poor semmelweis…), and the obtainment and treatment of cadavers can be considered abhorrent (see burke and hare murders, as well as liston assaulting knox in regards to this. It's on Liston's wiki page). Or the fact the miasma theory was commonly used up until germ theory, and cleanliness wasn't up to the right standards to avoid gangrene and infection, but to call medicine between the 1790s to the early 1900s utterly barbaric is far too simplistic and insulting to the men and women who worked so hard to advance medicine to what we see today. 

i'm reading the novel and these two are too funny

⁣⁣British surgeon and author Richard Gordon described Liston as the following:⁣⁣⁣⁣

⁣"He was six foot two, and operated in a bottle-green coat with wellington boots. He sprung across the blood-stained boards upon his swooning, sweating, strapped-down patient like a duelist, calling, 'Time me gentlemen, time me!' to students craning with pocket watches from the iron-railinged galleries. Everyone swore that the first flash of his knife was followed so swiftly by the rasp of saw on bone that sight and sound seemed simultaneous. To free both hands, he would clasp the bloody knife between his teeth."⁣⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣⁣Gordon's book, "Great Medical Disasters" (1983), lists some of Liston's other surgical procedures: ⁣⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣⁣"Removal in 4 minutes of a 45-pound scrotal tumour, whose owner had to carry it round in a wheelbarrow."⁣⁣⁣⁣

⁣"Amputated the leg in 2​1⁄2 minutes, but in his enthusiasm the patient's testicles as well."⁣⁣

Not an ask but share ur faves if u want bye

if i don't draw a nose line assume i've been killed and replaced by a very intelligent otter

also i appreciate how "faves" is not given a specific genre so therefore you get to hear about my fave doctor in the world mr. doctor robert liston give it up for the only mf to achieve a 300% mortality rate wwwoooooo!!!!!!!

he's my favorite 1800s guy in the world. did you know he was one of the quickest surgeons ever and got the nickname "fastest knife in the west end" and he had a catchphrase that went "time me, gentleman!" each time he did a surgery do you know how silly that is.

did you know one time he beat up a necrophiliac with his medical class watching. halfway through teaching a class he decided to burst through the guy's room and then throw the dude to the ground and then went to give the body a proper burial with his whole class just watching.

did you know he was the first ever doctor in europe to use anesthesia did you know that.

maybe he did accidentally kill 3 people in a surgery for 1 person by accidentally cutting something wrong and then it infected his assistant and then somebody in the audience died of shock but ssshhhhhhhhh shshshsh