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Listers Oil


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An acquaintance was rambling on Facebook and mentioned this:

I ended up on this page https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…/Joseph_Lister,_1st_Baron_Lister, which describes how Joseph Lister discovered that if surgeons washed their hands and tools in carbolic acid, way fewer people died of gangrene.

Listers oil! Anti-septic!

Earth is connected to Roshar Reckoners is Cosmere confirmed! :ph34r: 

 

 

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Yeah, Joseph Lister used carbolic acid in his hospital after reading about Pasteur's work on microbes. Unfortunately, carbolic acid is caustic and toxic, and has now been replaced by safer alternatives in hospitals.

Listerine, invented by another Joseph (Joseph Lawrence) only 14 years after Joseph Lister started the practice of using antiseptics, was named after Lister, and was originally used as a safer surgical antiseptic.

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It contains several essential oils (dissolved in alcohol) that have antiseptic properties. The Listerine mouthwash sold today began as a distilled form of the original formula.

I'm not saying that Lister's oil is Listerine. It could be any oil-based antiseptic, even a completely fictional substance, that Brandon decided to name after the Father of Modern Surgery. Like, maybe Lister's oil has antiseptic essential oils like Listerine but dissolved in vegetable oil instead of alcohol.

(I've also read that carbolic acid was once dissolved in vegetable oil and used as an anesthetic, but again its caustic nature became an issue.)

Edited by skaa
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A couple of months ago I made this connection while reading a biography of Louis Pasteur - who's germ theory of disease and work on vaccinations inspired and encouraged Lister. 

But yes, Kaladin uses Listerine. 

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