#1272 - Lindsey Fitzharris

Joe Rogan (0:01)

Okay, here we go, five, four, three, two.

Yes, and we're live. Hello, Lindsey. What's happening?

Lindsey Fitzharris (0:12)

Not much, thanks for having me.

Yeah, yeah, good to meet you. I'm the girl who tags you in all the disgusting medical history photos. And I'm really looking forward to grossing out your audience.

Joe Rogan (0:22)

I'm looking forward to you doing that as well. You have fascinated me with your Twitter page, and you, first of all, you are a doctor, right?

Lindsey Fitzharris (0:33)

Well, I'm a PhD. I can't save anybody's life. I can perform Victorian surgery amputation or something.

Joe Rogan (0:39)

I think anybody can, right?

Lindsey Fitzharris (0:40)

Yeah, yeah, probably.

Joe Rogan (0:41)

Is that a real one, that saw?

Lindsey Fitzharris (0:42)

No, this is a prop. So this was a real fun thing to get through customs when I was coming in from Britain. It's a Victorian amputation saw. It's called the Clockwork Saw.

And for people who are just listening, it's a circular saw and there would have been a crank that you wound it with and then you'd release it and it would spin sort of automatically. Oh, God. Yeah, and the idea was that it would make it faster. But the reason why I love this saw so much is that it was a massive failure. And I don't think we talk about failure enough in science and medicine.

All the things that work, there's a lot of things that don't work. And so this guy who invented this saw, when he tried it out, it was spinning so fast that he took off his assistant's fingers.

Joe Rogan (1:26)

Oh, Jesus Christ.

Lindsey Fitzharris (1:27)

It was a bit of an oops. It never got out of prototype phase. So I had to recreate it for my YouTube channel.

Joe Rogan (1:33)

Now, when you, in those old days, when they didn't have antibiotics and antiseptic.

Lindsey Fitzharris (1:40)

Right, yeah.

Joe Rogan (1:40)

When they saw someone's leg off or something like that, how many times do those people live?

Lindsey Fitzharris (1:47)

Well, you could pull through the operation. That was one part of it. But then of course you could die of post-operative infection.

So my book, The Butchering Art, really focuses on this one guy named Joseph Lister who applies germ theory and develops antiseptics, so germ fighting techniques. And most people don't know who he is, but they know the product Listerine. So Listerine was named after him. But I always tell people that, so basically Lister was a British surgeon and he came to America in 1876 to convince the medical community of germs. And there was a guy in the audience and he decided to create this product Listerine. But it wasn't even a mouthwash in the 19th century. It was used to treat gonorrhea.

But also I don't endorse that. Don't throw a little Listerine on it.

Joe Rogan (2:33)

Yeah, go to a doctor, man.

Lindsey Fitzharris (2:34)

Yeah, I could just see all the comments already on the YouTube. She told me to throw Listerine on it. No, I don't endorse that. And I'm sure the Listerine company is not too pleased. I'm talking about that either.

Joe Rogan (2:43)

So Listerine now just is for breath, right?

Lindsey Fitzharris (2:47)

Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan (2:48)

That's all it does.

Lindsey Fitzharris (2:49)

Yeah, it's an antiseptic mouthwash.

SPEAKER_4 (2:52)

Is it even any good for you?

Joe Rogan (2:53)

Like, is it good to kill all that stuff inside your mouth?

Lindsey Fitzharris (2:57)

I'm not a real doctor.

Joe Rogan (2:58)

Right, but you're a medical historian.

Lindsey Fitzharris (3:00)

I'm a medical historian. I would say that Dennis would say that Listerine's still a good product.

Joe Rogan (3:04)

Do you use it, Jamie?

Jamie (3:06)

Yeah. Some form of it, something like that. I just use some, I don't know if it's a crevice or Listerine. Some mouthwash.

Lindsey Fitzharris (3:11)

You gotta switch to Listerine now. In honor of Joseph Lister.

Joe Rogan (3:14)

So how did he know? How did he know that there was germs, that they were real?

Lindsey Fitzharris (3:18)

So let me take you back to sort of before he walks on the scene. So these operating theaters, they were filled to the rafters with ticketed spectators. People actually bought tickets to see someone get their leg hacked off.

Joe Rogan (3:28)

Oh, God.

Lindsey Fitzharris (3:31)

You know what, no one's asked me that. I don't know how much a ticket would cost for that spectacle. Now I really need to look into that.

SPEAKER_4 (3:39)

Oh God, people would pay to watch that?