This Day in History: British surgeon Joseph Lister died on this day in 1912. You may not have heard of him but you're probably alive right now because of him. You see, Lister is the one who convinced doctors to wash their hands before surgery. Prior to this you could have died from even the most basic procedure. Before germ theory many simply held people got sick because of miasma.
The miasma theory is an obsolete medical theory that held that diseases such as cholera, venereal diseases or the Black Death were caused by a miasma, a noxious form of "bad air", also known as night air. The theory held that epidemics were caused by miasma, emanating from rotting organic matter. Though miasma theory is typically associated with the spread of contagious diseases, some academics in the early nineteenth century suggested that the theory extended to other conditions as well, for instance one could become fat by inhaling the odor of food.
Did you know: the mouthwash Listerine was actually named after Joseph Lister.
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