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Election to surgeoncy

In August 1860, Lister had been rejected for a post at the Royal Infirmary by David Smith, a shoemaker who was the chairman of the hospital board. When Lister put his case to Smith explaining the need for anatomical demonstrations so the students could understand the practice of surgery, Smith stated his belief that "the infirmary was a curative institution, not an educational one". The rejection both annoyed and surprised Lister as he had been promised by Thomson that the position was assured. Indeed, he had informed his father of the fact that the post was guaranteed in his letter to his father.

In November 1860, the winter lecture course began. In total 182 students registered for the lectures and according to Godlee it was likely the "largest class of systematic surgery in Great Britain, if not in Europe". The class consisting of mostly 4th year students with some 3rd and 2nd year students, was so enthused, that they decided to make Lister the Honorary President of their Medical Society. When the time approached for the election to the surgeoncy in 1861, 161 students signed a petition on parchment supporting his claim for election. Lister was not elected until 5 August 1861, in what was described by Beck as a "troublesome canvas". Lister was put in charge of wards XXIV (24) and XXV (25) in October 1861. It wasn't until November 1861 that he performed his first public operation. Soon after Lister arrived at the GRI, a new surgical block was built and it was here that he conducted many of his trials of antisepsis.