Joseph Lister was an English surgeon who was the first man to realise the importance of aseptic techniques during surgical procedures. Lister was born in Essex, England, and after obtaining a bachelor of arts degree from University College London. He qualified as a doctor in 1852. Lister became assistant surgeon at Edinburgh Royal infirmary and was like to make such an at the Glasgow Royal infirmary and Scotland. The accepted belief at the time was the contact of an open wound with moisture in the air caused an infection, so surgical wounds recovered after operating with non sterile clothes, which increase the risk of infection, Lister refused to accept this theory and after reading the works of Louis Pasteur. He tried to prevent bacterial infection of surgical wounds by applying pure carbolic acid to surgical dressings, as well as cleaning wins with the acid during and after surgery. Lister studied the effects of his treatment for two years and then published his findings. This led to the adoption of doctors wearing white gowns which were used to show dirt and using surgical goals and carbolic acid to clean wounds after surgery. Lister successfully treated Queen Victoria using his new methods, and he was appointed chairman of clinical surgery at King's College Hospital, London, where he continued his research into antiseptics and plane surgery until he retired in 1893 and died in Kent England, aged 85.