[2][3] He was the first Professor of Clinical Surgery at University College Hospital in London and performed the first public operation utilising modern anaesthesia in Europe.

[7] In 1833, he applied for Edinburgh's Professorship of Anatomy but was beaten by James Syme (five years his junior) who had a much better aptitude for teaching.

[6] He died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm[11] on 7 December 1847 at his Mayfair home, and his funeral took place at St Michael's Church, Highgate, six days later.

In the former were relatives and his fellow medical professors of University College, and in the latter were friends of eminence in the higher ranks of society.

[12][5] Liston's legacy comprises both that which has made its way into the popular culture, and that found primarily within the medical fraternity and related disciplines.

[14] Following Liston's death, a meeting was held of his friends and admirers, who "unanimously resolved to establish some public and lasting Testimonial to the memory of this distinguished surgeon".

"[10] He is reputed to have been able to complete operations in a matter of seconds, at a time when speed was essential to reduce pain and improve the odds of survival of a patient.

He sprung across the blood-stained boards upon his swooning, sweating, strapped-down patient like a duelist, calling, 'Time me gentlemen, time me!'

Gordon states that Liston was "an abrupt, abrasive, argumentative man, unfailingly charitable to the poor and tender to the sick (who) was vilely unpopular to his fellow surgeons at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

He relished operating successfully in the reeking tenements of the Grassmarket and Lawnmarket on patients they had discharged as hopelessly incurable.

They conspired to bar him from the wards, banished him south, where he became professor of surgery at University College Hospital and made a fortune".

[24] While Liston's pioneering contributions are paid tribute within popular culture such as Richard Gordon, they are best known within the medical fraternity and related disciplines.

Gordon describes what he calls Liston's most famous case in his book, as quoted verbatim below.Amputated the leg in under 21⁄2 minutes (the patient died afterwards in the ward from hospital gangrene; they usually did in those pre-Listerian days).

He also slashed through the coat tails of a distinguished surgical spectator, who was so terrified that the knife had pierced his vitals he fainted from fright (and was later discovered to have died from shock).