He was six foot two, and operated in a bottle-green coat with wellington boots. He sprung across the blood-stained boards upon his swooning, sweating, strapped-down patient like a duelist, calling, 'Time me gentlemen, time me!' to students craning with pocket watches from the iron-railinged galleries. Everyone swore that the first flash of his knife was followed so swiftly by the rasp of saw on bone that sight and sound seemed simultaneous. To free both hands, he would clasp the bloody knife between his teeth.
I thank my lucky stars from time to time that I live in the age of modern medicine. You don't have to go very far back in history before you get to doctors who had no idea what the fuck they were doing.
I think I recall this from a documentary about how doctors washing their hands before operating was a novel and originally rejected idea, but lead to far lower infection rates post-operation.
JohnH550 on July 9th, 2018 at 23:01 UTC »
I had to Google this and holy shit this guy's wikipedia is a goldmine. How anyone survived the 1800s is a mystery.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Liston
Status_Flux on July 10th, 2018 at 00:46 UTC »
I thank my lucky stars from time to time that I live in the age of modern medicine. You don't have to go very far back in history before you get to doctors who had no idea what the fuck they were doing.
GoOtterGo on July 10th, 2018 at 01:17 UTC »
I think I recall this from a documentary about how doctors washing their hands before operating was a novel and originally rejected idea, but lead to far lower infection rates post-operation.