Throughout Joseph Lister's scientific career his assistant with his experiments and medical procedures (mostly surgeries) was his wife Agnes. In 1892 Agnes died while they were Italy taking a break from all of their research. Also short after the death of his wife, Joseph Lister suffered a stroke but still was able to be a functioning member of society. These two factors contributed to the loss of interest for Lister to continue his scientific research. Although in 1897 he was offered a position of secretary at the Royal Society of England, where he worked until his death. On February 10th, 1912 Joseph Lister died at the age of 85 years old due to pneumonia.
At this time period Joseph Lister easily passed the average life expectancy of all of Europe. Lister's neat and clean lifestyle lead to him living a long healthy life that was very productive and saved millions of lives. Even to this day Lister's hygienic practices during surgery are used so that the hospital isn't just a place to go to die. With the advances Lister made in his lifetime, surgeries that were performed after his work was complete would be deemed a success because the patient would not develop a deadly infection such as septicemia, erysipelas, or pyemia (most common infections found in hospitals during 19th century). Joseph Lister can truly be called "The Father of Modern Surgery" for the advances he made in the medical field of surgery.
At this time period Joseph Lister easily passed the average life expectancy of all of Europe. Lister's neat and clean lifestyle lead to him living a long healthy life that was very productive and saved millions of lives. Even to this day Lister's hygienic practices during surgery are used so that the hospital isn't just a place to go to die. With the advances Lister made in his lifetime, surgeries that were performed after his work was complete would be deemed a success because the patient would not develop a deadly infection such as septicemia, erysipelas, or pyemia (most common infections found in hospitals during 19th century). Joseph Lister can truly be called "The Father of Modern Surgery" for the advances he made in the medical field of surgery.