Abstract
Joseph Lister's painstaking experiments in antiseptic lotions, dressings, and sutures in the 1860s and early 1870s seemed needlessly complex to his critics and were best understood by those who saw him in action. From the 1880s the acrimony subsided, and Lister's international reputation became a major asset to the medical profession, even as it discarded or bypassed many of his techniques. He was claimed as an influence by many new specialties, even though in some cases his links with the discipline were tenuous. By the early twentieth century Lister had become a focus of imperial sentiment, and his legacy is seen at home and abroad through successive generations of students from his Scottish universities.