History of infection control in anaesthesia

Generally the basic sciences of physics, chemistry and mathematics and the applied sciences of anatomy physiology and pharmacology are associated with the history of the development and advancement of anaesthesia. In considering the history of infection control in anaesthesia, the contribution of microbiology must be added to the above. When sifting through old books and journals it is often difficult to understand the stimuli for the leaps of progress; I believe the zeitgeist is often the invisible (to our eyes) all important factor. An attempt to briefly illustrate some of the main events and characters follows.