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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.
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