<P> He subsequently left the Quakers, joined the Scottish Episcopal Church, and eventually married Syme's daughter, Agnes . On their honeymoon, they spent 3 months visiting leading medical institutes (hospitals and universities) in France and Germany . By this time, Agnes was enamoured of medical research and was Lister's partner in the laboratory for the rest of her life . </P> <P> Before Lister's studies of surgery, most people believed that chemical damage from exposures to bad air was responsible for infections in wounds . Hospital wards were occasionally aired out at midday as a precaution against the spread of infection via miasma, but facilities for washing hands or a patient's wounds were not available . A surgeon was not required to wash his hands before seeing a patient because such practices were not considered necessary to avoid infection . Despite the work of Ignaz Semmelweis and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., hospitals practiced surgery under unsanitary conditions . Surgeons of the time referred to the "good old surgical stink" and took pride in the stains on their unwashed operating gowns as a display of their experience . </P> <P> While he was a professor of surgery at the University of Glasgow, Lister became aware of a paper published by the French chemist, Louis Pasteur, showing that food spoilage could occur under anaerobic conditions if micro-organisms were present . Pasteur suggested three methods to eliminate the micro-organisms responsible: filtration, exposure to heat, or exposure to solution / chemical solutions . Lister confirmed Pasteur's conclusions with his own experiments and decided to use his findings to develop antiseptic techniques for wounds . As the first two methods suggested by Pasteur were dangerous and unsafe for the treatment of human tissue, Lister experimented with the third idea . </P> <P> In 1834, Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge discovered phenol, also known as carbolic acid, which he derived in an impure form from coal tar . At that time, there was uncertainty between the substance of creosote--a chemical that had been used to treat wood used for railway ties and ships since it protected the wood from rotting--and carbolic acid . Upon hearing that creosote had been used for treating sewage, Lister began to test the efficacy of carbolic acid when applied directly to wounds . </P>

Who became known as the father of oral microbiology