The pioneer of modern surgery would today be considered a danger: Robert Liston, "the fastest knife in London"

The article profiles Robert Liston, a 19th-century surgeon famed for lightning-fast amputations before anesthesia.

Liston was widely admired for surgical skill, but also became notorious for dramatic operating-room mishaps.

He helped usher in a turning point in Europe by performing one of the first major surgeries with anesthesia in 1846.

The piece shows how surgery moved from a brutal contest against pain and death toward modern, safer operating practices.