Germ Theory
In the second half of the 1800s Louis Pasteur perfected experiments which disproved the then-popular theory of spontaneous generation and from which he derived the modern germ theory of (infectious) disease. Using experiments based on this theory, which posited that specific microorganisms cause specific diseases, Pasteur isolated the infectious agent from anthrax. He then derived a vaccine by altering the infectious agent so as to make it harmless and then introducing this inactivated form of the infectious agents into farm animals, which then proved to be immune to the disease.
Pasteur also isolated a crude preparation of the infectious agent for rabies. In a brave piece of rapid medicine development, he probably saved the life of a person who had been bitten by a clearly rabid dog by performing the same inactivating process upon his rabies preparation and then inoculating the patient with it. The patient, who was expected to die, lived, and thus was the first person successfully vaccinated against rabies.
Anthrax is now known to be caused by a bacterium, and rabies is known to be caused by a virus. The microscopes of the time could reasonably be expected to show bacteria, but imaging of viruses had to wait until the development of electron microscopes with their greater resolving power in the 20th century.
Read more about this topic: Artificial Induction Of Immunity
Famous quotes containing the words germ and/or theory:
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