Editing Joseph Lister (section)

==Reception abroad (1870–1876)==
In 1869, [[Mathias Saxtorph]] from the [[University of Copenhagen]] visited Lister in Glasgow to adopt his methods.{{sfn|Linder|Forrest|2005}} In July 1870, Saxtorph recognised Lister's technique as being effective in a letter to Lister where he stated:

<blockquote>The Frederick Hospital, to which I am head surgeon is a very old building and I have 150 patients in the surgical wards. Foremerly, there used to be every year several cases of death from pyaemia, sometime, arising from the most trivial injuries. Now, I have had the satisfaction that not a single case of pyaemia has occurred since I came home last year, which result is certainly owing to the introduction of your antiseptic treatment.{{sfn|Toledo-Pereyra|Toledo|1976|pp=736–744}}</blockquote>

===Germany===
The first use of Lister's method in Germany was by [[Karl Thiersch]] in Leipzig in 1867.{{sfn|Godlee|1924|p=335}} Thiersch practised Lister's approach since its introduction and never published his results, but did teach it to his students.{{sfn|Godlee|1924|p=335}} His house surgeon [[Hermann Georg Joseph]] tested it on 16 patients with abscesses, with favourable results.{{sfn|Linder|Forrest|2005}} Joseph wrote a thesis on his results, proving the value of the Lister method, and presented in Leipzig the following year.{{sfn|Upmalis|1968}} In January 1870, [[Heinrich Adolf von Bardeleben]] presented a paper to the Berlin Medical Society that described the results but provided no statistical evaluation of them.{{sfn|Upmalis|1968}}

The adoption of Listerism on the European continent halted during the [[Franco-Prussian War]], but it became the greatest opportunity to advance Lister's ideas.{{sfn|Linder|Forrest|2005}} At the start of the war, Lister had written a pamphlet known as "A Method of Antiseptic Treatment Applicable To Wounded Soldiers in the Present War" that described a simplified technique of antiseptic that could be used on the battlefield and military hospital.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lister |first1=J. |title=A Method of Antiseptic Treatment Applicable to Wounded Soldiers in the Present War |journal=BMJ |date=3 September 1870 |volume=2 |issue=505 |pages=243–244 |doi=10.1136/bmj.2.505.243|pmid=20745963 |pmc=2261349 }}</ref> The pamphlet was immediately translated into German, but never made a material difference.{{sfn|Upmalis|1968}}

By far the most important advocate for Lister's antiseptic system in Germany was surgeon and [[osteotomy]] specialist{{sfn|Gaw|1999|p=98}} [[Richard von Volkmann]], who taught at the [[University of Halle]].{{sfn|Schlich|2013}}{{sfn|Willy|Schneider|Engelhardt|Hargens|2008}} In August 1870, he became surgeon-general during the [[Franco-Prussian War]] and was responsible for 12 army hospitals and 1442 beds.{{sfn|Willy|Schneider|Engelhardt|Hargens|2008}} When he returned to his own hospital in the winter of 1871, he found large numbers of patients with infectious diseases throughout the ward.{{sfn|Willy|Schneider|Engelhardt|Hargens|2008}} He wrote of the experience:

<blockquote>The mortality after large amputations and complicated fractures grew year by year. In the summer of 1871, during my absence on the battlefield, the clinic was crowded by a large amount of injured. For eight months, in the winter of 1871 to 1872, the numbers of blood poisoning and rose disease victims were so great, that I considered applying for a temporary closure of the facility. Without a morgue, the dead stayed in the cellar beneath the wards</blockquote>

In 1872, Volkmann sent his assistant [[Max Schede]] to visit Lister at his clinic, to learn his new techniques.{{sfn|Willy|Schneider|Engelhardt|Hargens|2008}} Once Schede returned in the autumn of 1872, Volkmann began to use Lister's new techniques.{{sfn|Willy|Schneider|Engelhardt|Hargens|2008}} On 16 February 1873, in a letter to [[Theodor Billroth]], Volkmann wrote:

<blockquote>since autumn of last year (1872), I have been experimenting with Lister's method... Already, the first trials in the old 'contaminated' house, show wounds healing, uneventful, without fever and pus.{{sfn|Willy|Schneider|Engelhardt|Hargens|2008}}</blockquote>

In April 1874, Volkmann presented a lecture titled: "About antiseptic occlusive bandages and their influence on the healing process of wounds" where he detailed the influence of Lister.{{sfn|Willy|Schneider|Engelhardt|Hargens|2008}} The lecture became famous in Germany, to such an extent that Lister's antiseptics were established in Germany, faster than in any other developed country. At the German Congress of Surgery, the members were so enthused with the results of Lister's work, that they invited him to visit Germany and see first-hand the results of his work.{{sfn|Gaw|1999|p=99}} Lister decided to accept the invitation to a continental tour.{{sfn|Godlee|1924|p=366}}

In the spring of 1875, Lister along with Agnes, his sister-in-law and two nieces left Edinburgh.{{sfn|Godlee|1924|p=366}} The group spent several weeks in a tour that began in [[Cannes]] in France, visited several cities in Italy and finished with a four-day visit to [[Venice]].{{sfn|Godlee|1924|p=366}} The first place in Germany that Lister visited was the "Allgemeines Krankenhaus" (general hospital) in [[Munich]], which was run by Nussbaum.{{sfn|Lister|1875}} A celebratory dinner was held in Munich for Lister, with seventy guests.{{sfn|Gaw|1999|p=99}} Lister received his most glorious reception in [[Leipzig]], where Karl Thiersch held a banquet for three to four hundred guests.{{sfn|Gaw|1999|p=99}} Lister then visited Volkmann in Halle before visiting Berlin, where the group was entertained by [[Heinrich Adolf von Bardeleben]], who worked at the [[Charité]] hospital and was one of the earliest adopters of antiseptics.{{sfn|Upmalis|1968}}