Wednesday 20 May 2020

Antiseptics, bone TB, Joseph Lister and Invictus (William Henley)

This blog is about the linkage between a great poetry and antiseptics. It sounds strange how Invictus, a legendary poetry was written by William Henley when he was admitted under Lord Joseph Lister, the father of antiseptics for treatment of bone TB. Henley, a 26 year old lad who was hospitalised under Lord Lister for his antiseptic treatment wrote this. I was pleasantly surprised by this correlation of chemical antisepsis, TB, Lister and Henley.

Invictus is one of my favorites and every school child should read this. I have always obtained strength from this poetry whenever I felt helpless under the spell of adversity.
I am copy pasting this below.

INVICTUS

"Out of the night that covers me,
      Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
      I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
      Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
      How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
      I am the captain of my soul."

This was written by William Earnest Henley in the year 1875 when he was getting treated by none other than Lord Lister to save him from a sure amputation due to tuberculosis. By that time, William was a 26 year old lad who had already lost a leg, left leg below the knee due to tuberculosis of bone. He had suffered from tuberculosis from an age of 12. By the age 20 he already lost left leg. When he found his right leg has got affected by bone TB he was devastated. One has to remember by 1875 humans did not know what caused tuberculosis, Pastuer's Germ theory just got noticed and antibiotics were a distant dream. Robert Koch discovered Tubercle bacillus in 1882. However by 1875 Joseph Lister, a British surgeon has pioneered use of antiseptics like carbolic acid in surgery to reduce infections. William Henley, scared of an imminent amputation of his remaining right leg, sought treatment of Lister and got himself admitted in Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh in 1873. During the long treatment by Lord Lister he witnessed the pain of so many diseased patients surrounding him and thus was born the poetry Invictus which today has become the symbol of inner strength in the time of untoward circumstances.
I found this information while reading history of microbiology. I was amazed to see how antiseptics pioneered by Lister cured Henley who in turn wrote this classic poetry during his hospitalization and treatment with Lister's antispetics.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ernest_Henley
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lister
3.https://www.cdc.gov/tb/worldtbday/history.htm