Abstract
Robert Liston, who died in his prime of an aortic aneurysm on December 7, 1847, is chiefly remembered as the first surgeon in Europe to operate under ether anæsthesia. He remarked at the time: “This Yankee dodge beats mesmerism hollow”. He was not a good writer or speaker, and he contributed little to the science of surgery, but he was unsurpassed as a lightning and dexterous operator, whose methods of crushing stone and amputating thighs were the envy and despair of other surgeons. Educated at the University of Edinburgh, he became assistant to John Barclay, the anatomist. In London he worked under the two Blizards and attended Abernethy's lectures. Quarrelling with the authorities, he was expelled from the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, but was reinstated as surgeon five years later. In 1834 he was elected surgeon to the newly founded hospital attached to the University of London. Six feet two inches in height, Liston was a man of fabulous strength, whose brusque voice was known to strike terror in the hearts of students and patients. His publications include “The Elements of Surgery”, 1831–32, and “Practical Surgery”, 1837. Liston is eponymously commemorated through ‘Liston's long splint’, which remained popular well into this century, and through ‘Liston's bone forceps’, which are still in common use.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Robert Liston (1794–1847). Nature 160, 783 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/160783a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/160783a0