title: Gangrene therapy and antisepsis before lister: the civil war contributions of Middleton Goldsmith of Louisville.
abstract: It is commonly accepted that Louis Pasteur is the father of microbiology and Joseph Lister is the father of antisepsis. Middleton Goldsmith, a surgeon in the Union Army during the American Civil War, meticulously studied hospital gangrene and developed a revolutionary treatment regimen.  The cumulative Civil War hospital gangrene mortality was 45 per cent. Goldsmith's method, which he applied to over 330 cases, yielded a mortality under 3 per cent. His innovative work predated Pasteur and Lister, making his success truly remarkable and worthy of historical and surgical note.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. Jmtrom01@louisville.edu
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Trombold
mesh_terms: D047831:American Civil War; D000985:Antisepsis / Q000266:history*; D005734:Gangrene / Q000266:history* / Q000628:therapy; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006772:Hospitals, Military / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D008887:Military Medicine / Q000266:history*; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000266:history*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000266:history; D014481:United States