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1861
The American Civil War broke out and infections claimed many lives. To limit the spread of infection, doctors performed limb amputation but they didn´t wash their hands or clean their tools.
Robert Wood Johnson was sent by his mother to Poughkeepsie, New York to work at her cousin´s pharmacy.
Simultaneously Louis Pasteur developed the germ theory which stipulated that bacteria caused infection. Dr. Joseph Lister got inspired and created antiseptic surgery. -
1864
Following his apprenticeship, Johnson´s first stop was New York City, where he worked as a salesman of drug products. -
1873
Johnson co-founded his own company together with George Seabury in New York. Seabury & Johnson quickly became a respected business known for its medicated plasters. The company rapidly expanded, and within a few years, had become one of the most widely recognized medicated plaster brands in the world.