Baron Joseph Lister
Lister relates that he has long been expecting Barker's letter and think often of Mr. Barker while considering whether the operation can be successfully performed on the eyes. In the meantime he advises her that it is "the wisest thing to be content with the present state of things, and continue to use the plaster." If they are in Edinburgh in six months, Lister states that he should like the opportunity of seeing him again for a "trifling operation which will do a good deal for him, especially as regards appearance." He assures her that she has not given him offense, and thanks her for calling his attention to those things which "transcend in importance all merely earthly matters." At the time this letter was written, Lister had been appointed to the post of professor of clinical surgery at Edinburgh where he remained until 1877. Lister is remembered as a pioneer of antiseptic surgery, a concept he announced in the Lancet journal in 1867.
This letter is available on the digital library project I Remain.