Sir William Macewen
(1848-1924)

Born on the Isle of Bute, Scotland, in 1848 Macewen qualified MB, CM from the University of Glasgow in 1869 and MD in 1872. He has often been named as the greatest innovative surgeon ever to have graduated from the Glasgow School of Medicine. He was appointed surgeon to the Western Infirmary in 1873 and to the Royal Infirmary in 1877 and it was in these hospitals that he developed his revolutionary aseptic practices.

A former student of Lister, Macewen was one of a number of surgeons who sought to take Lister’s work further by trying to achieve asceptic (germ-free) conditions in the operating theatre. His successful aseptic practices subsequently led to him becoming a pioneer of surgery of the brain and spine.

Macewen developed an ‘aseptic ritual’ in the operating theatre insisting that his assistants and staff scrubbed up thoroughly before surgery. He replaced the overcoats normally worn by medical staff during operations at the time to protect their clothing with sterilisable white coats. He also ensured that surgical instruments, dressings and everything else in the theatre which might be a source of infection was sterilised.

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