Fourth most famous case - Removal in four minutes of a 45 pound scrotal tumour, whose owner had to carry it around in a wheelbarrow.

Third most famous case - An argument developed with his intern. Was the red, pulsating tumour in a small boy's neck a straightforward abscess of the skin? Or a dangerous aneurysm of the carotid artery? 'Pooh! Liston exclaimed impatiently. Whoever heard of an aneurysm in a boy so young? Flashing a knife from his waistcoat pocket, he lanced it. Interns note:'Out leaped arterial blood, and the boy fell' The patient died but the artery lives in the University College Hospital pathology museum, specimen no. 1256.

Second most famous case - Amputated the leg in two and a half minutes, but in his enthusiasm the patient's testicles as well.

Most famous case - Amputated the leg in under two and a half minutes (the patient died afterward in the ward from gangrene, they usually did in those days). He amputated in addition, the fingers of his young assistant (who also died afterward in the ward from hospital gangrene). He also slashed through the coattails of a distinguished surgical spectator, who was so terrified that the knife had pierced his vitals that he died from shock.

The only operation in history with a 300 percent mortality.