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Sunday 26 August 2012

Antiseptic Surgery and Energy Resources - Sunday Stamps

Joseph Lister was  a pioneer of antiseptic surgery who promoted the idea of sterile surgery while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Lister successfully introduced carbolic acid to sterilise surgical instruments and to clean wounds, which led to a reduction in post-operative infections and made surgery safer for patients.

Lister tested the results of spraying instruments, the surgical incisions, and dressings with a solution of carbolic acid. Lister found that the solution swabbed on wounds remarkably reduced the incidence of gangrene. In August 1865, Lister applied a piece of lint dipped in carbolic acid solution onto the wound of an eleven year old boy at Glasgow Infirmary, who had sustained a compound fracture after a cart wheel had passed over his leg. After four days, he renewed the pad and discovered that no infection had developed, and after a total of six weeks he was amazed to discover that the boy's bones had fused back together, without the danger of suppuration.

Great Britain - Centenary of Joseph Lister discovering
. Antiseptic Surgery - (issued 1 September 1965)

The stamp has not scanned well; its catalogue description says it is indigo, black and grey. The tube snaking down the centre of the stamp should be indigo (red).

Carbolic acid and related phenols can be derived from coal tar - this reminded me of this set of stamps issued on 25 Jan 1978.

Great Britain - Energy Resources
I believe I have shown the 'coal' stamp in an earlier Sunday Stamps post.

To see what other useful/practical items have been chosen for this week please visit Viridian at Sunday-stamps-85

12 comments:

Lisa B said...

Great interpretation of the theme.
I'm not sure I'd seen all of the energy series.

Joy said...

The Glasgow may have been unlucky with the cartwheel but not the doctor. The Energy Resources are one of my favourite GB sets, visually striking.

Jo said...

Didn't know about carbolic experiments. Thank the lord he did them. Saved us all a lot of problems.

Bet you don't get stamps that cheap these days.

VioletSky said...

I do like the energy resources stamps - and the different colours of the sky in them!

Marcie said...

Interesting stamps!

Ana said...

antiseptic surgery...love it how it blends into the theme today! a really creative way to interpret it. And it was great to learn something new today as well...never really heard about Lister before :)

viridian said...

Of course I like the geology shown under the oil rig, etc! great resource stamps. thanks for sharing.

Bob Scotney said...

I should have said that the piece of equipment on the Lister stamp is his carbolic spray.

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

Lister had a home, I think "a place in the country" not far away from us here. I hadn't thought of the energy stamps.

Dănuţ Ivănescu said...

Very interesting and informative the first one, and intelligent as conception the series.

♥♥ Willa ♥♥ said...

Very useful indeed! I like those 4 series from Great Britain.
- My Sunday Stamp:Useful

dakotaboo said...

Despite the vibrant colours of the Energy Resource stamps, I think I prefer the 1960's one. I'm pretty sure I have it somewhere but cannot remember what other stamps were in the set. Will have to dig out stamps later.