As Osler stated in his Evolution of Medicine lecture series, “sanitation takes its place among the great modern revolutions – political, social and intellectual.” With the understanding of the body, new knowledge has been provided on the role of bacteria within it. Without modern sanitation techniques, surgical operations failed because infections often killed those operated on. Surgeons did not wash their hands before operations and equipment was rarely disinfected between operations. Knowing that diseases could come from bacteria and that bacteria could be passed from person to person was necessary for medical procedures to be successful and to increase survival rates around the world..