Ignorance is bliss: the Listerian revolution and education of American surgeons.
OBJECTIVE
Joseph Lister introduced antiseptic surgery in 1867. American surgeons, entrenched in the old ways of 19th century medicine, failed to adopt Lister's methods.


METHODS
Examples of the hubris and arrogant thinking displayed by early American surgeons are best shown by Thomas Eakins' masterpiece, The Gross Clinic, and by the death of President James Garfield.


RESULTS
Samuel Gross, preeminent American surgeon in 1875 boldly revealed in The Gross Clinic, and the team of distinguished surgeons using outdated methods caring for Garfield in 1881, illustrate American surgeons' woeful disdain and disregard of sterile surgical methods.


CONCLUSIONS
Public outcry over the failure of some of America's best surgeons led to widespread adoption of antiseptic surgery by the late 1880s and introduction of basic science into the medical education by the dawn of the new century.
Herr
Harry W
HW
Department of Urology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Cornell University Medical College, New York, New York 10021, USA. herrh@mskcc.org
D000985:Antisepsis / Q000266:history*; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education* / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D014481:United States