Response from Neenah:

You are right that Google shows Joseph Lister as the first result for "Father of Surgery". However, it shows him as "Father of Modern Surgery" and his contribution was the use of antiseptics. Google lists six others after that, including "Al-Zahrawi" who created 200 surgical tools that are still being used today. Albucasis’ principal work was the Kitab al-Tasrif (The Method of Medicine), a 30-volume encyclopedia of medical practices. The surgery volume became the standard text in Europe for the next 500 years.

Further down, Google links to this article: Al-Zahrawi – The father of modern surgery at: https://blog.frontiersin.org/2023/03/28/children-in-science-strongal-zahrawi-the-father-of-modern-surgery-strong/

So, the Google results might serve as an example of how we are robbed now of the knowledge of who the real benefactors were.

Lister deserves his place in history -- but that does not negate the profound contributions of Al-Zahrawi.

You may enjoy the Power Point presentation at https://chaseterraceacademy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/GCSE_Healththe_People.pdf

It says "Al-Zahrawi (Albucasis) (936-1013) Al-Zahrawi (Albucasis) wrote an encyclopedia called “al-Tasirif” including a volume called “On surgery”, which was the first medical book to contain pictures of surgical tools, providing clear information on how they were to be used. His book also gave practical guidance. It was widely translated and used across Europe until modern times."

About Joseph Lister, it says: "Joseph Lister used carbolic acid in surgery for the first time in 1865. His discovery was slow to catch on. It was not until the 1890s that new antiseptic methods were introduced to improve surgery on a widespread scale."