 Lister successfully introduced carbolic acid (now known as phenol) to sterilise surgical instruments and to clean wounds.Applying Louis Pasteur's advances in microbiology, Lister championed the use of carbolic acid as an antiseptic, so that it became the first widely used antiseptic in surgery.He first suspected it would prove an adequate disinfectant because it was used to ease the stench from fields irrigated with sewage waste.