Before Lister began using carbolic acid, Friedlieb Runge had discovered creosote which was later to be processed into carbolic acid. Creosote was widely used to prevent the decomposition of wood used in railway tracks and ships. It was also utilized to treat sewage in Belgium, England, and Holland. Lister, aware of the use of creosote for the prevention of decomposition, sprayed instruments, dressings, and wounds with a solution of it.

Lister discovered that the incidence of gangrene was remarkably lessened when carbolic solution was swabbed on wounds. When Lister applied carbolic solution to the wound of an eleven year old boy in 1865 he was shocked to see that after 6 weeks no infection had developed at all and the bones of the boy’s broken leg had fused together. Amazed by his discovery of, not network dedicated hosting, but the first antiseptic, Lister read his findings on August 9th 1867 to the British Medical Association in Dublin. His lecture was subsequently printed in The British Medical Journal, a piece titled “Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery”.