The Surgeon behind the Brand Name: Listerine

Joseph Lister (1827-1912) was a British surgeon (= a doctor who does operations on the body) who was the first doctor to use antiseptics (= chemicals that prevent wounds from becoming infected) during operations.
When Surgeon Joseph Lister of Glascow Royal Infirmary removed dressings from James Greenlees' compound fracture, he found the wound had healed without infection-something unheard of before. For six weeks, Lister had treated the boy's wound with carbolic acid. Now Lister had proof of success of his principle of antisepsis -which was to revolutionize methods of treatment and to open new vistas in practice of surgery, of medicine, and of environmental sanitation.
This painting by Robert A. Thom appeared in "Great Moments in Medicine" published by Parke Davis & Company, in 1966.

Listeria is the name given to any of various kinds of bacteria which cause an illness called listeriosis, a kind of food poisoning.

Listerine is a type of mouthwash (= liquid for making your mouth feel clean and smell fresh). Its original formula has notoriously strong flavour, although variations have been released that are marketed as tasting milder. The product is marketed under the slogan "Kills germs that cause bad breath".

Medicine: Christmas Disease

Christmas disease is another name given to Haemophilia B (or hemophilia B), which is a blood clotting disorder. It is sometimes called Christmas disease after Stephen Christmas, the first patient described with this disease. In addition, the first report of its identification was published in the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal.
As in haemophilia A, only males are usually affected by Christmas disease. This blood disease has also mainly affected both the Russian and British Royal Families on the basis of genetic factors.

Cool Link:
Haemophilia in European royalty

The Mountains and The Illness

The Rocky Mountains (also the Rockies) are a range of high mountains in North America which run from Alaska down to New Mexico, and separate the Midwest of the US from the West Coast. Many parts of the Rocky Mountains are popular places to visit, for camping, walking, climbing and skiing.
Sometimes when people talk about the Rockies in the US they mean the states that contain the Rocky Mountains, such as Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. The stereotype of someone who lives in these states is a man who works on a cattle ranch, wears jeans, cowboy boots and a stetson (= the type of hat that cowboys wear). People also think about the beautiful mountains and the ski resorts where people from all over the US go skiing.

The Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a serious illness found in areas of the US near the Rocky Mountains. It is caused by the bite of a tick (= a small animal like an insect) which produces fever and pain in the muscles and bones, and it can cause death if it is not treated.

Children's Uncommon Diseases: Reye's Syndrome

Reye's Syndrome is a rare and dangerous disease that usually affects children, and often after they have taken aspirin to treat an illenss. For this reason, doctors now suggest that children under twelve years old should not be given aspirin. Reye's syndrome is a disorder that affects the liver and the brain and that can cause death. Cases of Reye’s syndrome in adults are rare. The syndrome is named after Dr. R. Douglas Reye, who published the first study of the syndrome in 1963 in the medical journal The Lancet.

* Tylenol

In 1955, Robert McNeil introduced Tylenol for children. This was important because it was assumed that aspirin caused Reye's syndrome. Later, more Tylenol products were developed such as Tylenol PM, Infant's Tylenol, and Tylenol Allergy Sinus. In 1959, McNeil Laboratories was placed at the top of the pharmaceutical industry. The active ingredient in Tylenol is acetaminophen, used for headaches, fever, muscle and body pain, arthritis, and joint pain. Tylenol was popular back then and still is today.