British surgeon Joseph Lister faced ridicule in the 1860s for suggesting that invisible germs killed surgical patients. At the time, surgeons performed operations without washing their hands or cleaning their tools, often wearing stained street clothes. Hospitals were rife with gangrene and sepsis, making surgery a near death sentence. Inspired by Louis Pasteur's germ theory, Lister began using carbolic acid to sterilize instruments and wounds. Despite mockery, his methods dramatically reduced i