The operating theatre in St Thomas' Church never benefited from antiseptic surgery, which was the practice of killing or removing germs from surgical instruments and the area of the wound. During the period this theatre was in use, between 1822 and 1862, surgical equipment was rarely washed before operations, bandages were often reused, and surgeons were **more likely to wash their hands after an operation than before.** ![[Pasted image 20230910235825.png]] If a patient underwent a successful operation, many would later die from an infection, which became known as **'ward fever'**. Until Louis Pasteur's pioneering work on the role of germs as a cause of disease in the 1860's, wound infection had long been accepted as the result of exposure to the air and an inevitable part of surgery. ![[Pasted image 20230911000155.png]] It was surgeon **Joseph Lister ** who first developed effective antiseptic techniques in 1864. He introduced a **carbolic acid (phenol)** spray that would be used on the surgical instruments and bandages (on display here). By 1867, he had reduced the death rate in his patients from 46% to 15%. By 1890, carbolic acid stopped being used as a method of preventing germs during an operation and was replaced by aseptic surgery which included steam sterilising instruments and wearing gloves, gowns, and masks. The surgical cases on this display here reflect the evolution of pre-antiseptic and post-antiseptic surgery. Notice the velvet lining of the first two, as well as the wooden handles of the surgical tools. These made the tools difficult to sterilise, so the handle material changed (metal) as seen on the third surgical case.