Prevention Is a Cure

A fortunate discovery. Long before men discovered how germs spread in­fectious disease, they were searching for ways to prevent disease. Many of these searches were carried out in the darkness of scientific ignorance. However, occasionally a brilliant or fortunate man would make a great discovery.

Biology in medicine. Snow and Semmelweis did not know why their aseptic procedures worked. They knew only that when people washed, less dis­ease was transmitted. It remained for a chemist, Louis Pasteur, to discover why washing prevented the spread of disease.

After studying and solving a prob­lem of the French wine industry, Pasteur turned his scientific energies to the study of germs. He realized that bacteria, or one-celled plants, are pres­ent everywhere. He first worked with bacteria that were ruining much of the wine produced by French vineyards. Later he worked with a silkworm dis­ease that was threatening the French silk industry. In both cases he found that bacteria caused the disease. He later specialized in the study of bac­teria. He proved beyond a doubt that bacteria were the cause of many dis­eases in animals and humans.

Successful surgery. You may have heard that surgery during the nine­teenth century was a terribly danger­ous undertaking. Surgeons often lost more patients than they cured. The reason for the terrible record of the surgeons was that no one realized that bacteria in the air can easily contami­nate open wounds. Once Pasteur had made the giant step and had shown that infection and disease are caused by bacteria, other men began to im­prove operating conditions.

Joseph Lister, a famous English surgeon, is usually given credit for developing a method of antiseptic sur­gery. Lister realized that wounds would not become infected if the bac­teria already present on the wound could be killed and the bacteria in the air could be prevented from entering the wound. He used a variety of tech­niques using carbolic (kär bol'ik) acid as an antiseptic. The carbolic acid killed the germs in the wound. Lister kept out the bacteria in the air by covering wounds with material soaked with the carbolic acid. His treatment was so successful that surgery became much safer. Lister's discovery also made it safe for surgeons to attempt much more delicate surgery than they had dared undertake before. Later, the specific bacteria that cause wound infections were identified by Robert Koch, a man who contributed almost as much to the science of medical biology as did Pasteur himself.

Дата добавления: 2015-08-18