Joseph Jackson Lister FRS (August 3, 1857 – February 5, 1927) was a British

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

and

plant collector Plant collecting is the acquisition of plant specimens for the purposes of research, cultivation, or as a hobby. Plant specimens may be kept alive, but are more commonly dried and pressed to preserve the quality of the specimen. Plant collecting i ...

from

Leytonstone Leytonstone () is an area in east London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, a local authority district of Greater London. It adjoins Wanstead to the north-east, Forest Gate to the south-east, S ...

who collected biological specimens during travels in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...

and the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

region.Aluka entry on Joseph Jackson Lister
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Life

Lister's grandfather was also called

Joseph Jackson Lister Joseph Jackson Lister FRS FRMS (11 January 1786 – 24 October 1869) was an amateur British opticist and physicist and the father of The 1st Baron Lister. Ancestry In 1705, Thomas Lister, a farmer and maltster, of Bingley, Yorkshire, Englan ...

, and was a pioneer of high quality

optical microscope The optical microscope, also referred to as a light microscope, is a type of microscope that commonly uses visible light and a system of lenses to generate magnified images of small objects. Optical microscopes are the oldest design of microsco ...

s. Lister's uncle was

Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, (5 April 182710 February 1912) was a British surgeon, medical scientist, experimental pathologist and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery and preventative medicine. Joseph Lister revolutionised the craft of su ...

, the pioneer of

antiseptic An antiseptic (from Greek ἀντί ''anti'', "against" and σηπτικός ''sēptikos'', "putrefactive") is an antimicrobial substance or compound that is applied to living tissue/skin to reduce the possibility of infection, sepsis, or putre ...

surgery Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...

. Lister attended

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

where he was appointed Demonstrator in Animal Morphology in 1881, and Senior Lecturer in Animal Morphology in 1892. During 1887-1888 he also served as volunteer naturalist on the

surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

voyage of to

Christmas Island Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an Australian external territory comprising the island of the same name. It is located in the Indian Ocean, around south of Java and Sumatra and around north-west of the ...

in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

, where he made valuable collections. He is commemorated in the

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

of an

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

(''

Phreatia listeri ''Phreatia listeri'', commonly known as the Christmas Island caterpillar orchid, is a plant in the orchid family and is an epiphyte with four to six flat, blunt leaves in a fan-like arrangement. A large number of tiny, greenish white flowers are ...

'' ), Lister's palm (''

Arenga listeri ''Arenga listeri'', the Lister's palm, is a species of flowering plant in the family Arecaceae. It is named after naturalist Joseph Jackson Lister. It is endemic to Christmas Island and is threatened by habitat loss. The palm is featured on a ...

'' ), the Christmas Island lantern flower (''

Abutilon listeri '' Abutilon listeri '', commonly known as the lantern flower, is a tropical shrub in the Malvaceae or mallow family. It is endemic to Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the north-eastern Indian Ocean. Its specific epithet honours Bri ...

'' ), and Lister's gecko (''

Lepidodactylus listeri ''Lepidodactylus listeri'', also known commonly as Lister's gecko or the Christmas Island chained gecko, is a species of gecko, a lizard in the family Gekkonidae, endemic to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. It is currently extinct in t ...

'' ). He is also featured on a 1978

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...

of Christmas Island together with Lister's Palm. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1900. His application stated:
:"''Demonstrator of Comparative Anatomy in the University of Cambridge. Distinguished as a Zoologist. Was Naturalist on board HMS ''Egeria'' in two cruises, one to Christmas Island (Indian Ocean), the fauna of which he was the first to investigate, and another in the Pacific amongst the Tonga, Union, and Phoenix Islands, during which he made himself well acquainted with the fauna of those islands, and of the Seychelles. His researches on the Foraminifera have thrown important light on the life-history and reproduction of that group. Author of the following papers: - 'On the Natural History of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean' (Proc Zool Soc, 1888, p 512); 'On some Points in the Natural History of Fungia' (Quart Journ Micros Soc, Vol xxix, p 359); 'A Visit to the Newly-Emerged Falcon Island, Tonga Group, S Pacific' (Proc Roy Geograph Soc, March, 1890); 'Notes on the Birds of the Phoenix Islands, Pacific Ocean' (Proc Zool Soc, 1891, p 289); 'Notes on the Natives of Fakaofu (Bowditch Island), Union Group' (Journ Anthrop Inst, 1891, p 43); 'Notes on the Geology of the Tonga Island' (Quart Journ Geol Soc, vol xlvii, p 590); 'Contributions to the Life-History of the Foraminifera' (Abstract, (Proc Roy Soc, vol lvi, p 155. Full paper, Phil Trans, vol clxxxvi, 1895B, p 401); 'A Possible Explanation of the Quinqueloculine Arrangement of the Chambers in the Young of the Microspheric Forms of Triloculina and Biloculina' (Proc Camb Phil Soc, vol ix, pt v); with J J Fletcher, 'On the Condition of the Median Portion of the Vaginal Apparatus in the 'Macropodidae'' (Proc Zool Soc, vol lxiii, 1881, p 976).'' " http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqSearch=RefNo

%27EC%2F1900%2F07%27&dsqCmd=Show.tcl

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lister, Joseph Jackson 1857 births 1927 deaths British botanists British zoologists Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society Christmas Island