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| -50 | Varro | Postulated that invisible animalcules caused some diseases. | Chase | M. T. Varro (116 - 27 B.C.). Date of this contribution is arbitrarily chosen within his life span. The 'minus' symbol is intended to represent B.C. (BCE). According to Dowel, Varro associated fever with marsh "insects." Other commentators, however, have noted that "insect" might, at that time, have meant any small invertebrate animal. Varro's Latin has been translated as "in swampy places minute creatures live that cannot be discerned with the eye and they enter the body through the mouth and nostrils and cause serious diseases." (Cited by Roncalli Amici, R., Vet. Parasitol. 98:3 - 30, 2001). | Causation | General | Details |
| 30 | Columella | Speculated that fever may be caused in some way by marsh insects. | Dowel | Date is approximate (Columella died circa 40 C.E.) Many such speculations were recorded over the centuries, and undoubtedly many more went unrecorded. It cannot be assumed that Columella meant "insect" in the modern sense. It could have referred to any small invertebrate. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1000 | Avicenna | Probably recognized the presence of a worm in what became known as guinea-worm disease. | Grove | Avicenna is common Western name for Ibn Sina of Baghdad. The date is approximate (Avicenna would have been 20 years old). The guinea-worm is not a microbe, but this is one of many examples of the description of pathogenic macroparasites prior to the rise of the germ theory. Because of uncertainties in translation from the Arabic, it is not clear whether Avicenna accepted the claim that the elongated object was a worm rather than a vein. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1010 | Avicenna | Wrote medical text that included mention of various parasitic worms. | Campillo | Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna, mentioned worms that appear to include tapeworms and nematodes including ascarids, pinworms and Dracunculus medinensis. The date is approximate. The reference is: M. Cordero del Campillo, Vet. Parasitol. 33: 93-116, 1989. See also Grove. This is one of many accounts of macroparasites in antiquity. See the more precisely dated 1379 Brie for the reason for including a few, but only a few, such records in the Germ Theory Timeline. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1150 | Avenzoar | Wrote a description of the itch mite. | Campillo | The date is approximate. See M. Cordera del Campillo, M., Vet. Parasitol. 33: 93-116, 1989. Abu-Marwun-Abd Al-Malik Ibn Abi Al-Ala-Zuhr, known in the West as Avenzoar, described what would become known as Sarcoptes scabiei. He pointed out that it is on the threshold of human visibility, but could be extracted by needle from the skin tunnels in which it lives. As in the case of Bonomo (q.v.) this is important in the context of the Germ Theory Timeline, because the cause of itch was clear, but the mite can hardly be considered a germ -- and even the very good accounts that were written did not contribute to the debate that was to rage over the germ theory of disease. For this reason, few entries on arthropod parasites are included, and no special Pathogen Class has been created for them. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1200 | Anon. | Described liver-rot in sheep, and the presence of a fluke. | Andrews | The date is approximate. The account appeared in 'The Black Book of Chirk.' Presumably no suggestion of causation. There is a suggestion that a reference to what is now called fasciolosis may have appeared in a Welsh document of the 10th century. See S. J. Andrews, in Fasciolosis (J, P. Dalton, ed.) CABI Publishing, 1999. Knowledge of parasitic worms undoubtedly goes back to pre-history, but would generally have referred to intestinal worms, which are sometimes passed in feces. This item is included here because it deals with an extra-intestinal parasite. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1347 | Anon. | Military attempts to spread bubonic plague illustrate belief in contagion. | Waller | While besieging the city of Caffa, on the Black Sea, Tartars catapulted corpses of plague victims over the walls of the city. Western belief in person-to transmission-person (as distinct from miasmatic transmission) was also strengthened by the introduction of smallpox to Europe by returning crusaders and by the later introduction of syphilis to Europe by travelers to the New World. By 1800 there would be not only recognition that all three diseases were acquired from 'contagious effluvial' emanating from infected persons, but also recognition that the contagious material produced a specific disease (not different diseases in different individuals, depending on circumstances (climatic, constitutional, moral, etc.). Even by 1800, however, germs would not be a recognized factor (despite occasional speculations about their existence and possible role). | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1379 | Brie | Recorded his observation of liver fluke in sheep. | Touratier | Jehan de Brie. Undoubtedly de Brie was referring to what would later be named Fasciola hepatica. His account is included here because it is a classic event in parasitological history, and thus serves as a convenient reminder that macroscopic parasites of humans and domestic animals have been observed since antiquity. Their significance as pathogens was not understood. The continued observation of these organisms over the centuries preserved the concept of animal parasitism; but as emphasized by Farley, their presence was an important obstacle to the dethronement of Spontaneous Generation. Few such early accounts are included in the Germ Theory Timeline, because the main relevance of helminths in this context is the later discovery of species that are microscopic or have pathogenic stages that are microscopic. See Touratier, L., Vet. Parasitol. 33: 45-63,1989. Also in Grove. See also entry for Bidloo. See also chapter by S. J. Andrews in Fasciolosis (J. P. Dalton, ed.) CABI Publishing, 1999. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1546 | Fracastoro | Wrote that diseases were caused by invisible seminaria (seeds). | Bullock | Seeds or "germs" in original sense. A renowned epidemiologist, echoing Charles Singer, suggested that Fracastor [Fracastoro] "...had a claim to be regarded as the first scientific teacher of a doctrine all men now hold to be true" [i.e. the germ theory]. Referring to Henle's germ theory and Laveran's discovery of the malarial parasite, he added "We may then put the interval between Henle and the triumph of his ideas, which were also Fracastor's, at forty years; from Fracastor to Henle was nearly three hundred years" (Major Greenwood, in Science, Medicine and History [E. A. Underwood, ed.] Oxford Univ. Press, 1953, Vol. 2, p 501-507). Silverman points out that Fracastoro also had a theory to explain acquired immunity [not significant re Germ Theory]. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1646 | Kircher | Theorized that contagion was due to invisible living bodies. | Chase | Published thesis that human exhalations contained invisible living bodies that were sources of contagion. Speculative. Also published 1650. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1650 | Hauptmann | Held that death results from invisible animalcules in body of humans and other animals. | Wilson | According to Catherine Wilson's "The Invisible World" (1995), other statements by Hauptmann indicate uncertainty about causation. One of many examples in support of Wilson's thesis that there was continuity between pre-19th Century ideas of animate contagion and 19th Century germ theory. Kobler (in The Reluctant Surgeon, Doubleday,1960) quotes Jean Astruc's account of Hauptmann beliefs re venereal disease. See Astruc. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1650 | Langius | Allegedly espoused idea of invisible living things as cause of syphilis. | Kobler | Date arbitrary and tentative. Kobler (in The Reluctant Surgeon, Doubleday,1960) quotes Jean Astruc's account of beliefs that Christian Langius shared with Hauptmann. See Hauptmann. See Astruc. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1656 | Borel | Recorded ideas about "worms" in blood and decaying matter, but without evidence. | Dowel | It is impossible to say what he meant by "vermes" (worms). The word worm, like the word insect, could refer to any small creature held in low esteem. In any case, Borel was reporting hearsay and speculation. Dowel dismisses the suggestion by Singer (1915) that Borel probably saw protozoa or bacteria. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1658 | Kircher | Recorded remarks which some have taken to imply discovery of protozoa or bacteria. | Dowel | Kircher used words meaning insect and worm, but these could have referred to any miniscule animal, and their use does not, in itself, preclude the sense of microbe. For various reasons, Dowel rejects any validity to claims made on behalf of Kircher. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1665 | Boghurst | Held that plague was caused by many minute corpuscles. | Wilson | Many "little bodyes" or "corpuscles" or "atoms." Catherine Wilson, in her 1995 book, says these were not regarded as living things. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1665 | Diemerbroeck | Suggested that plague was a venom propagated like yeast, but in the air. | Wilson | Catherine Wilson, in her 1995 book, says this concept was not that of a living contagion in the 10th Century sense. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1665 | Hooke | Described a fossilized foraminiferan (large protozoon) in sand, and understood it as a microscopic life form. | Bardell | Robert Hooke described and illustrated the object in his Micrographia (1665). He interpreted it as a miniature snail shell (which it resembles in form) and thought it probably had been petrified (fossilized). See Bardell, David 1988. ASM News 54: No.4, 182-185. ASM = American Society for Microbiology. Hooke also described and illustrated a microscopic fungus (rust) and said it resembled a mushroom. Although a rust colony is macroscopic, the various forms of hyphae, which Hooke described, are not. Hooke may thus be said to be the discoverer of microorganisms, though these were free-living organisms and not germs as we know them. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1668 | Redi | Showed that maggots did not develop in meat protected from flies. | Grove | Famous work in opposition to Spontaneous Generation. By no means the end of the affair; see Farley's book, for example. Redi accepted Spontaneous Generation for parasitic worms. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1674 | Leeuwenhoek | Observed and reported animalcules in lake water, and what were probably coccidian oocysts and trematode ova in mammalian bile. | Foster | Foster gives key information, but the present notes for all of the Leeuwenhoek entries are based mostly on Dobell 1932, with additional notes from Bardell, 1982. All of the Leeuwenhoek entries in the Germ Theory Timeline are placed in the 'microscopy' Category, because his achievements in microscopy were in no way incidental to his biological discoveries, but were the very basis of those discoveries. The discoveries were made with a hand-held single-lens microscope of his own design and manufacture. This item was reported in Dutch in letter of September, and partially published (in English translation) in November. Complete English translation in Dobell,1932. Dobell believed the organisms included the flagellate protozoon later named Euglaena viridis. The oocysts were described as "oval corpuscles" and were probably oocysts of Eimeria stediae. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1675 | Leeuwenhoek | Observed and reported animalcules in rainwater, canal water, etc. | Garrison | Observed in summer, reported in letters of December 1675 and January 1676. See Dobell 1932. No mention of parasitic forms, so this entry included only to clarify the use of various dates for Leeuwenhoek's discovery of the protozoa. | Microscopy | Protozoa | Details |
| 1676 | Leeuwenhoek | Reported existence of free-living microorganisms that were probably bacteria. | Brock (1961) | Included in the famous letter (in Dutch) of 9th October -- letter no.18; published in part in English in March 1677, and in full by Dobell, 1932. Brock 1961 reprints the 1677 partial translation. The organisms were seen (on 24 April 1676) in a pepper infusion, and Bardell (1982) notes that the discovery was made in the course of studies on the sense of taste (not in random examination of everything). The organisms were not illustrated, and their extremely small size is the basis for their retrospective recognition as bacteria. Leeuwenhoek said they were much smaller than the protozoon (Vorticella) he had already seen. | Microscopy | Bacteria | Details |
| 1680 | Leeuwenhoek | Observed and recorded what were probably parasitic protozoa, in gut of horse-fly. | Foster | Letter (in Dutch) of 12 November, 1680; published in part, in English, in 1681; see Dobell, 1932. The organisms were probably trypanosomes in a vector tabanid fly. This appears to be the first record of a parasitic protozoon. | Microscopy | Protozoa | Details |
| 1681 | Leeuwenhoek | Observed and reported protozoa (Giardia) and bacteria in diarrheic human feces. | Foster | Letter (in Dutch) of 4 November 1681; read in English at Royal Society, London, 9 November 1681; published in Dutch 1686, in Latin 1687. See Dobell 1932. The description of one animalcule suggests that it was the flagellate protozoon Giardia lamblia, and this appears to be the first report of a protozoan parasite in humans. Leeuwenhoek found it, and various bacteria (including spirochetes) in his own diarrheic or slightly loose stools, but not in stools of ordinary firmness. He did not suggest a causative role for the microbes in the looseness of bowel movements -- and indeed the microbes may have played no role. On the available evidence, he would not have been justified in claiming causation, and there is no indication that he even suspected such a thing. Had Leeuwenhoek postulated a causative role, he would have reaped more attention from historians of medicine. In the same letter, Leeuwenhoek described microbes, probably bacteria, in the feces of a hen and a pigeon. | Microscopy | Protozoa | Details |
| 1683 | Leeuwenhoek | a. Reported the presence of protozoa and bacteria in the feces of frogs. | Foster | Reported in Dutch, in a letter of 16 July 1683 (addressed to Sir Christopher Wren). Shortened English version published in 1684. See Dobell. The protozoa included what were probably Opalina, Nyctotherus and Trichomonas (or Trichomastix); see Dobell. Accompanied by drawings that strongly suggest that the organisms were what would later be called bacteria. About the same time Leeuwenhoek discovered microorganisms in scrapings of the tongue. Apparently he did not link them to disease, except to note more of them in people who had bad breath as a result of not cleaning their teeth. Bardell (1982) comments that this, the definitive discovery of bacteria, was reported by Leeuwenhoek 7 years after his first apparent observation of them (see 1676). His text and illustrations clearly show that he saw rod-shaped bacteria. His illustrations of round organisms are usually interpreted as depicting cocci or micrococci, but Bardell (1982) points out that examination of the text calls this into question, because the organisms were said to be fast-moving and changeable in shape. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1683 | Leeuwenhoek | b. Described microorganisms (probably bacteria) in the scurf of human teeth. | Brock (1961) | In letter (in Dutch) of 17 September 1683; published in 1684. Brock reprints an 1684 English abstracts; Dobell, 1932, gives his own full translation. Bardell provides important perspective (Bardell, D., Microbiological Reviews 47:121-126, 1982). Descriptions and drawings strongly suggest that the organisms were what would later be called bacteria. They were found in matter taken from his own teeth and the teeth of others, and probably were found as a consequence of Leeuwenhoek's strong interest in keeping his teeth clean (Bardell, 1982). The drawings, published in several variant forms, are widely understood to represent bacilli, cocci, and spirochetes. Those regarded as cocci, however, were said to be fast-moving, and for this reason Bardell points out that they were probably not cocci. Error has probably resulted from too much reliance on the illustrations and inattention to the descriptive text. The long chain of small dots should not be mistaken for drawings of bacteria (it indicates the path of movement of a single organism). Leeuwenhoek did not link the microbes to disease, and indeed emphasized their abundance in the healthy mouth with well-cleaned teeth -- though he did imply a special abundance in people who had bad breath as a result of not cleaning their teeth. Dobell (1932) dismisses Wenyon's 1926 suggestion that these microbes included Trichomonas. | Microscopy | Bacteria | Details |
| 1683 | Slare | Slare (also called Slear) linked animalcules, theoretically, to cattle plague. | Dobell | Slare speculated that animalcules may have been associated with cattle plague. He proposed that Leeuwenhoek would have found "some strange Insect or other" in the affected cattle. Because Leeuwenhoek had reported bacteria and protozoa in diarrheal human feces, and because "Insect" would then have referred to any low form of life, Slare apparently appreciated, more than Leeuwenhoek, the likely role of microscopic organisms in disease causation. For Slare, see Dobell page 230. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1684 | Abercromby | Proposed that syphilis was caused by a parasite. | Garrison & Morton | D. Abercromby. Circumstantial evidence or mere speculation? | Causation | General | Details |
| 1687 | Bonomo | Reported parasitic (acarine) causation of scabies. | Garrison | Garrison says the parasitic nature of scabies "had been noted by the Arabians". See Wichmann (1786). The itch mite lies more-or less at the threshold of visibility of the unaided human eye. It can be described as a microorganism, although, by convention, it is not usually included in the concept of "microbe" or "germ." Mange in domestic animals, and scabies in humans, were known in antiquity, and references to these diseases are frequent in ancient literature (see, for example, Raffaele Roncalli Amici, Veterinary Parasitology 98: 3-30, 2001). Bonomo's work can be regarded as the first account of disease causation by a specific microorganism. It was an outstanding piece of biological research, and a contribution to the demise of the theory of Spontaneous Generation. Nevertheless it was negligible as a factor in the evolution of the Germ Theory because (a) it was ahead of its time, in that it preceded the observations and debates that led to the Germ Theory in the 19th century, and (b) it dealt with an endemic skin disease. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1698 | Bidloo | Reported eggs of liver-fluke, Fasciola hepatica. | Grove | Opposed theory of Spontaneous Generation. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1699 | Hartsoeker | Postulated transmission of intestinal worms by ingestion of eggs shed in feces. | Grove | Niklass Hartsoeker, in a letter of 1699 to Nicholas Andry (published by him in 1700): "I think that worms, males and females, develope in the intestines and that some of their eggs are excreted with the feces, and falling on vegetation or some other item they are eaten by another animal in whose intestines the worms, enclosed within the eggs, come and nourish themselves...". Translation? in Kean et. al. 1978. This was a major conceptual advance over the presumption of spontaneous generation in situ. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1700 | Andry | Published book arguing that all parasitic worms came from seed (eggs) in the external environment. | Grove | May have seen tapeworm eggs. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1701 | Andry | Proposed microbial causation of disease. | Lee | Nicholas Andry (also Andre, acute accent). Not in Garrison or Lechevalier. Significance of this item uncertain. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1701 | Rivinus | Wrote that most diseases were caused by mites and minute worms (pathologia animata). | Garrison | Augustus Quirinus Rivinus also developed some kind of "antitoxic" therapy. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1708 | Leeuwenhoek | Observed and reported microbes in "fur" scraped from human tongue during fever. | Dobel | In letter (in Dutch) of 29 June 1708; partial English translation published in same year. Dobel, 1932, said that these were "obviously putrefactive organisms," not normal inhabitants on the mouth. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1710 | Joblot | Boiled infusions remain free of microorganisms. | Lechevalier | In a controlled experiment, Joblot showed that animalcules did not appear in hay infusions that had been boiled and kept in a sterile closed container. This was a contribution to the long Spontaneous Generation controversy that was separate from, but relevant to, the Germ Theory. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1718 | Bradley | Recorded specificity of blight disease of plants. | Wilson | Richard Bradley, botanist. May have postulated air-borne transmission of a causative organism -- See Bradley 1721. To be checked in Catherine Wilson's 1995 book. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1718 | Lancisi | Postulated a role for the mosquito (and perhaps animalcules) in malaria. | Ackernecht | Not the first to do so, but perhaps a more coherent theory than some others. According to Dobel, Lancisi mentioned Leeuwenhoek's animalcules to support his ideas. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1720 | Marten | Marten (or Martin) published elaborate speculation that minute living creatures or animalcula may cause tuberculosis (phthisis). | Wilson | Benjamin Marten, physician. Book on tuberculosis. Garrison gives name as Marten, and book as 'A new theory of consumption.' See "The Invisible World" by Catherine Wilson, 1995. Marten was aware of microscopy and of observations of living creatures in various body tissues. Concluded that creatures may even exist below the limits of microscopical resolution! -- so their "eggs" must be even smaller and capable of drifting in air and being taken in by breath or food. Further, one species of animalcule may affect certain organs or tissues, while another may affect others, resulting in various familiar diseases. Some people are so healthy that the infective "ova" may be expelled or destroyed before they are activated into life. Marten even explained intermittent fevers by saying that in a sweat the organisms are expelled, giving clinical relief until more organisms enter the blood from the lungs [this in the context of tuberculosis]. His theory, like Bradley's, was in opposition to current ideas of inanimate corpuscles affected by gravitation -- i.e. mechanistic, "Newtonian" ideas. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1721 | Bradley | a. Recorded elaborate speculation on causation of disease by air-borne organisms. | Wilson | Richard Bradley, in book on human plague. Familiar with animalcules in pond water. Believed all "pestilential distempers" of animals and plants were caused by "Insects" conveyed from place to place by the air. See Bradley 1718. Presumably he would have used "insect" to refer to any small invertebrate, though Wilson may not make that point. All speculation (based on analogy between disease patterns in plants and animals) with no claim to have seen germs. See Catherine Wilson's 1995 book. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1721 | Bradley | b. Postulated that parasitic worms must enter the human body by inhalation or ingestion. | Wilson | Richard Bradley, see 1718 and the previous entry for 1721. See Catherine Wilson's 1995 book. Bradley made the astute [ahead of his time] observation that parasitic worms in humans must come from outside, entering the body as worms or eggs either in breath or "unwholesome food." The writings of Farley on Spontaneous Generation make it clear that this postulate was by no means obvious. For long after Bradley's time, it seemed possible that worms (regardless of whether they were spontaneously generated) could propagate, by means of eggs, within the host body. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1725 | Vallisnieri | Espoused idea of animate contagion. | Wilson | Date is approximate and tentative. See "The Invisible World" by Catherine Wilson, 1995. Antonio Vallisnieri not in Garrison in this context. See 1733, same author. That entry would indicate that the above date is wrong; should be earlier. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1727 | Hales | Suggested transmission of hop mildew by small seeds. | Ainsworth | The Rev. Stephen Hales suggested both environmental causation and transmission by small seeds of mold. He considered it probable that seeds were blown by wind from the hops to the ground, thus making the ground a source of disease for subsequent hop crops. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1728 | duHamel | Found fungus causing root disease of saffron plant. | Parris | Name given as "du Hamel du Monceau." Evidence of causation not given by Parris, but he cites Mayer, 1959. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1733 | Vallisnieri | Reintroduced concept of living contagion. | Wilson | See 1725, same author. According to Catherine Wilson's 1995 book, Antonio Vallisnieri was prompted by a cattle epidemic of 1711-14 and human plague of 1720 to revive his idea of "contagium vivum." He suggested the possibility, in the future, of infusing drugs into the veins to kill the minute worms responsible for disease. Nevertheless Vallisnieri had doubts about his theory. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1743 | Needham | Discovered that grains of smutty wheat consisted of masses of worms. | Parris | John Turbevill Needham (1713-1781). He did not call the worms nematodes. Parris considers this the first observation that nematodes cause disease in plants. Gerald Thorne, in his 1961 book, gives a quotation from Needham. Organism was later named Anguina tritici. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1748 | Arderon | Published illustration of superficial fungal infection on fish. | Ainsworth | William Arderon. Ainsworth refers to this as "the earliest record of a mycotic disease in a vertebrate" and considers the fungus to be Saprolegnia. Extent of description not given by Ainsworth. Presumably this was not a significant discovery in the evolution of the germ theory. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1748 | Needham | Reported experiments in support of doctrine of spontaneous generation. | Garrison | In context of putrefaction of meat. Such studies on putrefaction and fermentation were central to the early germ theory. Collaborated with Buffon. See also Magner's "A History of the Life Sciences" 1994. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1755 | Tillet | Reported experimental evidence of the contagiousness of wheat bunt. | Ainsworth | Mathieu Tillet, using numerous plots of wheat, found evidence that bunt was transmitted by black dust from diseased wheat plants. He was unclear about the way in which the spores resulted in disease. [The bunt fungus was later named Tilletia.] | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1755 | Weszpremi | Proposed prevention of plague by inoculation. | Garrison | Stephan Weszpremi. Not influential. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1761 | Astruc | Reported, but dismissed, the theories of others concerning causation of syphilis by invisible living things. | Kobler | Kobler (in The Reluctant Surgeon, Doubleday,1960) quotes Astruc without giving source, but source is here presumed to be Astruc's multi-volume treatise of diseases of women, published 1761-1765. Quote: "There are some, however, whom I forbear to spend time in imputing, such as Augustus Hauptmann and Christian Langius, who think that the Venereal Poison is nothing else but a numerous School of little nimble, brisk invisible living things, of a very prolific nature, which when once admitted, increase and multiply in Abundance; which lead frequent Colonies to different Parts of the Body; and inflame, erode, and exulcerate the Parts they fix on; in short, which without any regard had to the particular Quality of any Humor, occasion all the Symptoms that occur in the Venereal Disease...". Kobler says Astruc dismissed the concept as fantastic. See Hauptmann. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1762 | Plenciz | Proposed living contagion with a specific verminous seed for each disease. | Garrison | A. von Plenciz. The contagion was described as contagium animatum and seminum verminosum. First name Marc Anthony (Marcus Anton). Garrison cites a senior and a junior, and attributes this theory to Plenciz Sr.'s treatise on scarlatina. However there appears to be a discrepancy in connection with these men: the index citation for Jr. seems to refer to Sr. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1766 | Spallanzani | Reported absence of animalcules in heated, sealed infusions. | Grove | Famous work in opposition to Spontaneous Generation. See, for example, Farley's book on the subject. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1767 | Clarke | Contagiousness of puerperal fever. | Garrison | John Clarke, obstetrician of London. Date is provisional. Garrison gives 1767-88. K. C. Carter, in book review (Bull. Hist. Med. 70: 1996) says Clarke was among those whose contributions re childbed fever are merely of antiquarian interest. See also page 393 in Graham's Eternal Eve, 1951. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1767 | Fontana | Reported microscopic plant as cause of rust in wheat. | Ainsworth | Felice Fontana recognized the microparasite as a fungus. His report was more influential than the similar work of Targioni-Tozzetti, published in the same year. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1767 | Linnaeus | Recorded parasitic nematode in wheat disease. | Parris | Anguina tritici in "cockle" of wheat. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1767 | Targioni-Tozzetti | Reported microscopic plant as cause of rust in wheat. | Ainsworth | Detailed work on black rust revealed microparasite in wheat plant. Concluded that transmission was by wind-borne seeds too small to be seen even by microscope. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1774 | Jesty | Began inoculation with cow-pox to prevent smallpox. | Garrison | Benjamin Jesty was an English farmer. His trials with cow-pox were not influential. | Immunology | Viruses | Details |
| 1775 | Anon. | Plant Virola sp. used by natives of French Guiana to treat thrush. | Joyce | No knowledge of fungal etiology. Under test in 1990s for antifungal activity. Apparently used by various indigenous peoples. Book by C. Joyce, 1994, p. 73, and Schultes quote p. 12. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1777 | Scopoli | Recorded parasitic nematode in cereal disease. | Parris | Cited in Thorne's 1961 book. No details given. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1781 | Pallas | Reported an attempt to infect dogs with tapeworm by parenteral injection of tapeworm eggs. | Grove | Claimed worms developed in situ; presumably an error. A strike against Spontaneous Generation. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1782 | Bloch | Published detailed arguments in support of Spontaneous Generation for parasitic worms. | Grove | Prize-winning 1780 work. See also writings of Farley. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1782 | Goeze | Published arguments in support of Spontaneous Generation in parasitic worms. | Grove | Won prize in the 1870 competition in which Bloch also won a prize. Reflects acceptability of the concept. Saw eggs being eliminated but did not recognize their role in transmission. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1786 | Wichmann | Discussed parasitic origin of scabies. | Garrison | See Bonomo. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1790 | Abildgaard | Reported tapeworm in ducks after feeding them the intermediate host (fish) harboring the larval stage. | Grove | Based on observation and deduction. First known attempt to demonstrate parasite transmission. Major discovery but not appreciated in its day. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1791 | Plett | Used cowpox inoculation to prevent smallpox. | Garrison | Not influential. Garrison p.373; not in index. | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1798 | Jenner | Reported the use of cowpox inoculation for the prevention of smallpox in humans. | Brock (1961) | Landmark publication; see Brock 1961 for excerpt. See Jenner entry for 1800. | Immunology | Viruses | Details |
| 1799 | Steinbuch | Recorded parasitic nematodes in disease of grain. | Parris | Cited in Thorne's 1961 book. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1800 | Anon. | Many attempts in early years of Century to make achromatic objectives. | Bradbury | Inspired by mid-18th Century discovery that, despite Newton's views, it was possible to make telescope lens with considerable correction of chromatic and spherical aberration. Application to microscope had limited success. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1800 | Cruikshank | Purified water by chlorination in England. | Garrison | Done without knowledge of microbial pathogens. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1800 | Gooch | Contagiousness of puerperal fever. | Carter | Date is entirely provisional. K. C. Carter, in book review (Bull. Hist. Med. 70: 1996) says Gooch was among those whose contributions re childbed fever are merely of antiquarian interest. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1800 | Jenner | Published claim that cowpox vaccination had been validated and had the potential to eradicate smallpox from the world. | Anon. | The claim probably appears in one of the pamphlets published (according to Garrison) by Jenner in 1799-1806. McNeil, like Garrison, emphasizes the rapid spread of vaccination. While Jenner's precepts were sound, and were applied with enormous success, they were developed in the absence of a scientifically established germ theory. Jenner had announced his great discovery two years earlier (in his booklet of 1798) but this Timeline offers only minimal information on immunological or microscopical developments prior to 1800, because of their lack of direct connection with germ theory. | Immunology | Viruses | Details |
| 1800 | Moreau | Purified water by chlorination in France. | Garrison | Done without microbiological knowledge. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1800 | Orth | Proposed, in about this year, the contagiousness of puerperal fever. | Carter | Date is provisional and entirely arbitrary. Not in Garrison 4th ed. K. C. Carter, in book review (Bull. Hist. Med. 70: 1996) says Johannes Orth was among those who did "seminal" studies on childbed fever (and guided Pasteur and Koch). | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1800 | Waterhouse | Introduced vaccination to New England. | Garrison | He vaccinated his four children in July, 1800, using cow-pox material from England. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1801 | Baud | Publicized organic concept of fermentation. | Anon. | He published a French translation of 1787 book by Fabbrioni on fermentation of wine. This was a remarkable pre-19th C. analysis of the nature of fermentation. Fabbrioni believed that an organic substance in the grape degraded into alcohol. The translation presumably had greater impact in France than did the Italian original. Pasteur acknowledged this work as the first indication of the organic nature of fermentation. Studies on fermentation remained primarily chemical until the crucial biological breakthrough in 1836 - 37. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1802 | Anon. | British government ordered measures to protect welfare of factory apprentices. | Anon. | Included washing workrooms with quicklime and water at least twice a year, providing fresh air, and reporting any "infectious disorder." This was a matter of empirical hygiene and social reform, and is not indicative of an awareness of infectious diseases in the modern sense. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1802 | Anon. | Gave dramatic example of epidemic devastation. | McNeill | It was reported that French troops in Santo Domingo were wiped out by diseases (especially Yellow Fever) "leading to" the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. McNeill p. 260. According to Latour (Pasteurization of France, p. 115): of 58,545 men, 50,270 died in four months; and by 1809, 58,245 had died. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1802 | Anon. | Vaccination institute founded in Berlin. | Anon. | Illustrates rapid spread of Jenner's method. Related to Germ Theory only in that it highlights the degree to which an immune response to a microorganism was successfully exploited without knowledge of germs. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1802 | Brown | Vaccinated 500 people in Kentucky. | McNeill | Samuel Brown. Shows rapid spread of Jennerian method (protection against germs without knowledge of germs). Mc. Neil p. 256. Also in Garrison, p. 840. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1802 | Pinel | Published Nosographie philosophique. | Bullock | It pioneered a new trend in classifying diseases according to morbid anatomy, and approached the concept of specific diseases in the modern sense. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1802 | Thenard | Described yeast-like substance in fruit juice fermentation. | Lechevalier | Reported, in 1802-03, results of his study on fermentation. Stated that a material appears (or precipitates out of solution) in the fermentation of gooseberry juice; and that this "ferment" resembles brewer's yeast, and could be used to start fermentation in other sugary solutions. Similar observations were made in fermentations of various fruits and grains. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1803 | Anon. | Doctors from Spain reached Mexico to teach vaccination | McNeill | McNeill, p. 251. Another example of the successful exploitation of the immune response to germs, without knowledge of germs. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1803 | Anon. | Offered prize for fermentation work. | Anon. | The French National Institute for Sciences and Arts offered a large prize for work elucidating the difference between organic substances that cause fermentation and organic substances that are fermented. It was never awarded, but the offer illustrates both the importance and the mystery of fermentation at the beginning of the century. Later, in the 1840s and 1850s, research on fermentation was to provide important underpinning to the germ theory of diseases. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1803 | Winterbottom | Described sleeping sickness in West Africa. | Major | "Winterbottom's Sign" (swollen glands in neck) became important in diagnosis, but another century (approximately) was to elapse before the causative germ (protozoon) would be discovered. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1804 | Zinke | Reported first experimental transmission of rabies from animal to animal (dog to rabbit). | Norman | G. G. Zinke. He inoculated rabbits with saliva of rabid dog. The value of the rabbit in rabies research was reintroduced by Galtier in 1879. See 1803. | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1805 | Anon. | Used Jenner's smallpox vaccine on people near the Chinese border. | Anon. | A further illustration of the spread of Jennerian method -- in this case toward the alleged place of origin of the practice of smallpox inoculation. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1805 | Napoleon | Ordered vaccination of all troops. | McNeill | McNeill - p. 252. Another example of immunization against a microbial disease more than a half-century before the germ theory was established. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1806 | Malthus | Warned against smallpox vaccination. | Garrison & Morton | In the first edition of his essay, published in 1798, he argued that elimination of a widespread lethal disease would result (if the birth rate remained stable) in an upsurge of other lethal diseases. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1807 | Anon. | Doctors from Spain moved on from Mexico to Philippines to teach vaccination. | McNeill | McNeill - p. 252 See 1803 and 1805. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1807 | Anon. | Royal College of Physicians (Britain) declared vaccination safer than variolation. | Anon. | Variolation refers to inoculation with smallpox rather than cowpox. See 1803 and 1805. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1807 | Anon. | Vaccination made compulsory in Bavaria. | Anon. | Illustrates political use of an immunological tool for public health purposes without a microbiological basis. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1807 | Prevost | Reported that bunt or smut of wheat was caused by microscopic "spores" of fungi. | Ainsworth | Also that it could be prevented by soaking wheat seeds in copper sulfate. This could be regarded as the first record of the pathogenicity of a micro-organism (and of a disease being controlled by willful use of a chemical to destroy the pathogen). See 1885. Ainsworth gives further details of this work by Isaac-Benedict Prevost; notes that obscurity of publication caused delay in impact, but cited by others in 1847. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1807 | van Deyl | Made achromatic objective. | Bradbury | Bradbury does not give the specific date. Deyl (van Deyl or van Deijl) combined a biconvex crown-glass lens with biconcave flint-glass lens (with the concavity facing the object being almost flat). Helped to reduce spherical as well as chromatic aberration. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1808 | Gaspard | Began injecting putrid materials and body fluids into animals, causing acute disease and death. | Norman | M. H. B. Gaspard. See also 1824. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1808 | Marzoli | Began making achromatic lenses, using cemented doublets. | Bradbury | Bernadino Marzoli was one of several workers making achromatic lenses in the first decade of the nineteenth century. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1809 | Anon. | Invention of canning for food preservation; sterilization without germ theory. | McNeill | McNeill - p. 259. See Appert 1810. Was McNeil referring to Appert? If so, the statement needs correcting, because used glass bottles, not cans. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1810 | Anon. | Vaccination made compulsory in Sweden. | Anon. | Continuing success of empirical vaccine -- control of disease without knowledge of its causative agent. Chase gives the year as 1818. Dorothy Fisk, in Dr. Jenner of Berkeley, gives the year as 1811. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1810 | Appert | Book on preservation of meat and vegetables by heating to boiling temperature in sealed bottles. | Norman | An example of preventing microbial decomposition without knowledge of micro-organisms, and the forerunner of the canning industry. At the time of the Spontaneous Generation quarrel, canning had been used for 50 years, and Pasteur referred to it in his writings. As Dubos wrote: Pasteur demonstrated what housewives knew. Metal cans, including the tin-plated variety were introduced in the 1920s. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1810 | Frauenhofer | At approximately this time, made achromatic objectives by combining achromatic doublets. | Bradbury | See 1824. See Marzoli. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1810 | Gay-Lussac | Reported results of his studies on the chemistry of fermentation. | Bullock | Predates discovery of microbial nature of fermentation. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1810 | Rudolphi | Published book supporting spontaneous generation of parasitic worms. | Grove | Worms continued for many years to be seen as evidence of spontaneous generation. See Farley. Rudolphi believed that the tapeworm Echinococcus granulosus was derived from intestinal epithelium. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1811 | Brewster | Suggested the use of gem stones in making simple microscopes, because of their higher refractive index. | Bradbury | Sir David Brewster, who is cited by Bradbury for several contributions to microscopy. See Prichard 1824. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1812 | Anon. | Pamphlets on vaccination distributed by Russian authorities to distant territories such as Samarkand. | McNeill | McNeill - p 256. See 1803. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1812 | Anon. | The Society of Apothecaries unsuccessfully petitioned the British Parliament for the official recognition of midwives. | Williams | This is a reminder of the unappreciated role of germs in the mortality then associated with childbirth. From the 1770s to the 1840s, various pioneers pointed to the transmissibility of childbed fever, and the effectiveness of cleanliness in preventing it; but until the germ theory became accepted, the means of control were not widely accepted. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1812 | Parkinson | Published first report in English of death resulting from a perforated appendix. | Norman | A microbiological explanation would not then have been considered. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1812 | Wollaston | Improved the simple microscope. | Bradbury | He inserted a diaphragm or "stop" between the adjacent flat surfaces of two plano-convex lenses (a "doublet"). This reduced spherical aberration but at the cost of reducing the effective aperture of an already small lens. In high-power single lenses, spherical aberration is much more of a problem than chromatic aberration. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1813 | Brewster | Suggested immersion of front element of objective in the fluid in which the object is placed. | Bradbury | This would improve color correction and keep object from drying out. Published his ideas in book, 1813, but made the suggestion in 1812. The achromatic effect was obtained by immersing the several spaced (not cemented) lenses of the front element in vegetable oil, so that the oil between these convex lenses acted as liquid "biconcave lenses." | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1813 | Knight | Suggested that mildew or rust of wheat was caused by a "minute species of parasitical fungus." | Doetsch | Also rye? See Burrill 1879, Arthur 1885, Smith, E. F. 1899. Note that Parris does not have an entry for 1813. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1814 | Mease | Reported observations on natural transmission of Texas Cattle Fever. | Roncalli | He stated in a lecture that Texas Cattle Fever had been transmitted to Northern cattle by movement of healthy cattle from the South. This suggests a "carrier" status, but did Mease suggest germ etiology? Roncalli, AAVP Newsletter, (Amer. Assoc. Vet. Parasitol.) 1990. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1815 | Mayer | With Emmett, reported a fungal infection (apparently aspergillosis) in a bird. | Rippon | See 1850. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1816 | Anon. | In 1816-18 British troops carried cholera to Afghanistan and Nepal. | McNeill | McNeill - p. 263. A pre-germ-theory episode. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1816 | Scholer | Transmitted rust from barberry bush to rye by inoculation of spores. | Ainsworth | Niels Pedersen Scholer. Transmission from one host species to another was already known to farmers and accepted by some scientists (e.g. Banks in 1805). It was the basis for the 1755 Barberry Law of Massachusetts -- the first law passed for the control of a plant disease. Publication date not available. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1817 | Anon. | Cholera breaks out of India, due to new transport routes. | McNeill | McNeill - p. 262. Illustrative of the mystery (and terror) of epidemics before the germ-theory. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1817 | Nitzsch | Saw resemblance between cercariae and trematodes. | Grove | Relevant to spontaneous generation. Grove seems to contradict suggestions that Nitzsch recognized that cercariae were immature flukes. See Bojanus. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1817 | Pelletier | Isolated emetine as active alkaloid of ipecac. | Norman | Early specific against a microbial disease (amebiasis), but pre-dates the germ-theory. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1818 | Bojanus | Observed that cercariae come from rediae within snails. | Grove | See Nitzsch (or Nitzch) 1817. In seeing cercariae emerging from non-similar "parent", Bojanus anticipated the theory of Alternation of Generations. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1819 | Anon. | Official is abused for diagnosing Yellow Fever. | Rosenberg | Example of a pre-germ-theory epidemic causing fear and deception. Rosenberg, p. 19. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1819 | Bizio | Said that red spots on corn mush were masses of microscopic fungi. Named them Serratia marcescens. | Chase | B. Bizio. Magic Shots p. 85-88, gives ref. as Gaughran, trans. N.Y. Acad. Sci. II, 31: 3-24, 1969. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1819 | Bremser | Published book supporting spontaneous generation of parasitic worms. | Grove | He believed that worms were formed from intestinal mucus. Cited Schreiber (unpublished?) who fed eggs of various worm species to a polecat but did not recover worms at necropsy. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1819 | Melo | Concluded that red spots on corn mush were not supernatural, but rather the result of fermentation. | Chase | P. Melo. Magic Shots p. 85-87. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1819 | Rudolphi | Described larvae of Drancunculus. | Grove | A step in the elucidation of the life cycle of a human pathogen. Mentioned only in a table in Grove (and missing from the index). | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1820 | Anon. | From this time on, glass slides of approximately 3" x 1" began to replace other bases for object preparation. | Anon. | Popular earlier bases included ivory "sliders" with carved holes and mica cover slips. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1820 | Bancks | Made an advanced simple microscope. | Anon. | The instrument was used by the English botanist Bentham. It had a 20x lens that could be used for dissection and a 170x lens for high magnification. It exemplified the high development of the "Ellis Aquatic" type of microscope. Similar instruments were made by Bancks from about 1810 to about 1830, and instruments of this type, made in England by Bancks, Dollond or others, were used by Charles Darwin, William Hooker and Robert Brown. Bancks, often written as Banks, was not related to Sir Joseph Banks. Not mentioned by Bradbury. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1820 | Pelletier | With Caventou, isolated quinine from cinchona. | Norman | An early specific against a microbial disease (malaria) without knowledge of causation. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1821 | Amici | Made first effective achromatic microscope. | Collard | See 1824 for more on Amici. In the early years of the !9th century, many attempts were made to make achromatic objectives. These were inspired by the mid-18th century discovery that, despite Newton's views, it was possible to make telescope lenses with considerable correction of chromatic and spherical aberration. Application to microscopes had limited success initially; but in the 19th century achromatic microscopes became important in the discovery of "germs." | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1821 | Anon. | British troops spread cholera to S. Arabia, while trying to suppress slavery. | McNeill | McNeill - p. 263. See 1817. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1821 | Bretonneau | Presented oral reports on the specificity of diseases such as diphtheria and typhoid. | Bullock | A concept that was important ground work for development of the germ theory. Published in 1826-29. Bullock - p. 157. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1821 | Magendie | Used saliva of a human rabies case to transmit rabies to dogs. | Anon. | The work was begun in 1810. | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1821 | Schilling | Transmitted glanders to humans. | Garrison | Formerly major disease of horses. Agent: Pseudomonas mallei. Usually fatal in humans. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1822 | Acerbi | Reported his view that typhus is caused by parasites (hypothetical) multiplying in body. | Anon. | Not mentioned in Lechevalier, or Garrison. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1822 | Anon. | French experts studied Yellow Fever outbreak in Barcelona. | McNeill | Concluded no possibility of contact between victims, therefore not contagious. Major blow to germ theory. Gave ammunition to British liberals who opposed quarantine as being suppression of free trade. McNeill - p. 266. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1822 | Persoon | Gave name "mycoderma" (fungal skin) to the "skin" formed on the surface of a liquid when vinegar is produced. | Lechevalier | Produced by the French method, i.e., slow oxidation of wine. Thus he considered it to consist of living organisms. Named yeast Mycoderma cervisiae. Cited by Pasteur, 1860. See footnote in Lechevalier, p. 22. See 1826. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1823 | Magendie | Reported lethal effect of putrid blood when given intravenously but not orally. | Anon. | Reduced effect if putrid fluid put through filter paper: lack of effect when animals suspended over putrid material to expose them to putative effluvium or miasma. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1824 | Amici | Made achromatic objectives, using the Selligue approach. | Bradbury | He had made achromatics in the early years of the Century, but had been discouraged by the increased spherical aberration caused by multiple lenses. See 1827. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1824 | Gaspard | Published results (also in 1822) of injecting putrid materials (e.g., pus) and body fluids into animals, by various routes. | Garrison & Morton | See 1808. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1824 | Pritchard | Made a lens of diamond (at the suggestion of Goring). | Bradbury | It was optically a success as predicted by Brewster in 1811, but gem stones in general proved impractical for lens manufacture. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1824 | Selligue | Designed objective consisting of a series of four achromatic doublets. | Bradbury | The doublets were plano-concave plus biconvex, with convex surface toward object. The microscope was made by Vincent and Charles Chevalier. Corrected chromatic aberration, but this advantage was outweighed by accumulation of spherical aberration with each added doublet, especially with convex surface toward object. This required placement of a diaphragm on top, to reduce aperture, greatly reducing resolution. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1825 | Barthelemy | Showed that anthrax was transmissible by inoculation in a series of sheep. | Joklik | Anthrax was soon to become focus of germ-theory research. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1825 | Chevallier | Made objectives of Selligue type, but with the flat surface of the plano-concave lens facing the object. | Anon. | This gave less spherical aberration. If the spelling of his name is correct, this presumably refers to Jean Chevallier of Paris (1778-1848). Bradbury refers to Chevallier's work on Selligue type of multiple-lens microscope in 1824. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1825 | Copland | Used potassium iodide in syphilis. | Garrison | An example of pre-germ-theory medication for a microbial disease. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1825 | Goring | Introduced the use of standard test objects for comparing performance of objectives. | Anon. | Used the scales of butterfly wing (Morpho menelaus, according to Bradbury, who also mentions Van Heurck's use of scales of moth wing, but does not give date for either). | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1825 | Labarraque | Used sodium hypochlorite and other chemicals to prevent putrefaction of corpses. | Lechevalier | Advocated sodium chloride and calcium oxides, and sodium hypochlorite to prevent putrefaction and thus deodorize corpses. Based on trials at a Paris morgue. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1825 | Louis | Published important work on tuberculosis, but without knowledge of its etiology. | Garrison & Morton | Expertise concerning an infectious disease without knowledge of infectious agents. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1826 | Anon. | New cholera epidemic out of India. | McNeill | See McNeill p. 263. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1826 | Bretonneau | Described and named diphtheria. | Major | He later (1855) recognized specificity of disease. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1826 | Desmazieres | Described and illustrated yeast cells (the Mycoderma spp. of Persoon). | Lechevalier | Considered them to be animalcules. Did not propose role in fermentation. See 1822 & 1827. Lechevalier (and Solotorovsky) give date as 1827; they mention this contribution in a footnote on p. 22 -- but their Index lists Desmazieres only for p. 116 (on which there seems to be no mention of it!). | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1826 | Laennec | Maintained unity of scrofula and tuberculosis. | Garrison | No note. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1826 | Smith | Made achromatic microscope for Lister. | Ford | Probably the first made for Lister. Reference not certain. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1826 | Tulley | Made an exceptional microscope with an achromatic objective. | Anon. | Ordered by Lister and made to his yet unpublished (?) mathematical principles. It had a substage condenser and mechanical stage. Unlike its contemporaries, it was made for use only as a compound scope, instead of being adaptable for use of lenses as simple scope when high magnification was needed (the problem with simple scopes then being eye strain and very small aperture). | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1827 | Amici | Produced improved objective by new approach (resulting from work begun in 1824). | Bradbury | He empirically arranged achromatic doublets (or triplets) so that the spherical aberration of each successive doublet canceled out the spherical aberration of the one that preceded it. Permitted wider apertures, and thus more brightness and better resolution. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1827 | Brown | Studied the motion of microscopic particles of animal, vegetable and mineral origin. | Asimov | Robert Brown, botanist. Not the first to see such movement (since known as Brownian motion), he was the first to clarify its universality and its inanimate nature. Using a simple (single lens) instrument, he first observed such motion in the interior of male sex cells (pollen grains). Although not published until 1828, his work can be reliably placed in 1827 because of his numerous demonstrations of the movement in that year. Reference: Asimov, I. New Intelligent Man' Guide to Science. Basic Books, New York, 1960. It is sometimes reported that Brown made his observation on pollen grains themselves, but in fact he observed moving particles in fluid-filled pockets inside the grains of pollen. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1827 | Desmazieres | Considered yeast an infusarian because of motion. | Lechevalier | Cited by Pasteur, 1860. May have been seeing Brownian motion. See footnote in Lechevalier p. 22 (not in accord with book's index.) See 1826. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1828 | Annesley | Recognized and described amebic dysentery. | Anon. | Among the Editorial list of "milestones" in Parasitol. Today, 9: 347, 1993. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1828 | Chadwick | Wrote essay setting out what he later called his "sanitary idea." | Chase | Edwin Chadwick's essay argued that hygiene and sanitation could increase human life span beyond the gains already achieved. He went on to lead medical, social and civic reformers in lessening the hazards (and inefficiencies) of the Industrial Revolution by means of the great sanitary movement -- dealing with politics, poverty and crime as well as disease. Chase, A., Magic Shots. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1828 | Dance | Reported experiments on the pathogenicity of putrid materials when injected. | Anon. | Supporting the conclusions of Gaspard; see 1808, 1824. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1829 | Alibert | Described pustule d'Alep, the characteristic lesion of cutaneous leishmaniasis. | Garrison | Not seen upon cursory look at historical papers in Kean, Mott and Russell book. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1829 | Coddington | Improved the simple microscope by reducing the spherical aberration, but at the cost of decreased aperture. | Anon. | See 1812. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1829 | Creplin | Confirmed 1790 report that birds acquire tapeworm by eating fish harboring the larvae. | Grove | Very early "life cycle" of an infectious agent. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1829 | Ehrenberg | Began his study of microorganisms. | Doetsch | According to Cohn (1872). While this is in the nature of a biographical event, it is included because of the rarity and significance of such studies at this time. See 1830. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1829 | Lister | Published his mathematical principles for designing lenses with better correction of aberration. | Anon. | J. J. Lister. Possibly an earlier publication than his article of 1830 (q.v.) but also may be an error in the date of publication. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1829 | Louis | Wrote on typhoid fever and gave it that name. | Norman | Unaware of causation. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1829 | Rhind | Opposed spontaneous generation of parasitic worms. | Grove | Probably also in Farley's 1977 book. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1829 | Simpson | Made first municipal water filter. | Garrison | James Simpson. For Chelsea Water Company, London. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1829 | Wollaston | Improved the simple microscope beyond his advance of 1812. | Anon. | He mounted two plano-convex lens with both flat surfaces facing the object, and reduced spherical aberration without so much loss of effective aperture. See 1812. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1830 | Anon. | About this time the new achromatic objectives were making it necessary to use long microscope tubes. | Bradbury | Thus the popular small scopes such as Cary's six-inch model were no longer being developed. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1830 | Anon. | Beginning of rapid decline (1830 - 50) in status of American medical profession. | Rosenberg | See Rosenberg, The Cholera Years, page 154. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1830 | Anon. | Popularized glass microscope slides. | Bradbury | This entry is not to suggest a single event or a single inventor. Rather it is to record that about this time ivory sliders were giving way to glass slides, requiring larger stages. This was a major factor in the evolution of modern microscopes. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1830 | Chevalier | Improved the simple microscope. | Bradbury | Exact date is uncertain. Chevalier (presumably Charles Chevalier of Paris) used two plano-convex lenses in the manner of Wollaston (see 1829) but inserted a stop between them to give a sharper image. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1830 | Ehrenberg | Discovered Bacterium termo. | Garrison | Christian Gottfried Ehrenburg (1795 - 1876) was the leading authority on infusoria. This is an example of the work that was going on in the field of free-living bacteria on the eve of the germ theory. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1830 | Kaehler | With Alms, discovered santonin for treatment of parasitic worms. | Garrison | Remained in use for very long time [more than a century]. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1830 | Lister | Described mathematics of achromatic lens. | Bradbury | J. J. Lister. Published (Phil. Trans. 130:187) guidelines for making achromatic objectives without accumulation of spherical aberration. This permitted rational design of objectives of the Amici type; see 1827. A landmark development, signaling the practicality of objectives with both types of correction. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1831 | Anon. | Cholera to Mecca at time of pilgrimage. | McNeill | Started series of outbreaks lasting until 1912. See McNeill p. 263. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1831 | Anon. | Epidemic cholera in Europe. | Anon. | Presumably in Charles Rosenberg's "The Cholera Years." | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1831 | Henry | Sterilized fomites of scarlatina victims by heat, 200 F. | Garrison | Scarlet Fever, a streptococcal infection. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1831 | Mehlis | Saw miracidia emerging from trematode eggs. | Grove | Relevant to spontaneous generation. Presumably in Farley's 1977 book. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1831 | Perkins | Introduced high-pressure hot water for sterilization. | Anon. | Elisha Perkins? This entry should be deleted unless clarified. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1832 | Anon. | Cholera carried to Ireland, then Canada, then U.S.A. | McNeill | See McNeill p. 263. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1832 | Anon. | Introduced British quarantine vs. cholera. | Anon. | Perhaps in Rosenberg's "The Cholera Years.' An example of attempts to control infectious disease prior to the Germ Theory. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1832 | Bigelow | Promoted sanitary measures to control a major outbreak of cholera. | Anon. | Gave Boston a much better survival rate than New York. Again illustrates successful and rational control in the absence of knowledge of germs. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1832 | Brown | Used a single lens to observe the cell "nucleus." | Anon. | Robert Brown, botanist. The observations, made on the tissues of orchids, show the continued value of simple microscopes at a time when compound scopes had long been available but the achromatic objective was still a novelty. The nucleus appears in the drawings of earlier workers, but Brown called attention to it, and suggested the name "nucleus," in the paper published in 1832. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1833 | Anon. | Cholera spreads from U.S.A. to Mexico. | McNeill | Not known to be caused by microorganisms. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1833 | Bassi | Reported evidence of infectious nature of silkworm disease (muscardine). | Anon. | Agostino Bassi. Applied to Univ. of Pavia for permission to demonstrate findings on the infectious nature of mal de segno (muscardine) of silkworms. Garrison gives the date of his discovery as 1836; Lechevalier as 1835. Perhaps the 1833 report was oral. See 1834, 35. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1833 | Cary | Made microscope intermediate between simple and compound types. | Ford | The date is approximate. At about this time, Cary made microscopes similar to the "Ellis Aquatic" type (see 1820) but with a compound body tube in place of the single lens at the end of the horizontal bar. Ford considers this an intermediate link between the simple and compound types. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1833 | Unger | Published claim that parasitic fungi of plants arise from morbid sap. | Ainsworth | Given as example of opposition of even eminent botanists such as Franz Unger to germ theory of these diseases. Fungi were effects not causes. See Prevost,1807 and others. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1834 | Bassi | Demonstrated infectious nature of a disease of silkworms. | Ainsworth | He demonstrated it to scholars of the University of Pavia. Certificate issued. See 1833 and 1835. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1834 | Horner | Reported that stools in cholera contained epithelial tissue sloughed from small intestine, but did not report seeing bacteria. | Anon. | Seen in "rice water stools." Depending on the magnification used, he might have been in a position to see the causative agent. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1834 | Kutzing | Apparently saw yeast cells and realized that they were living. | Anon. | Claim rests on his own report that he had communicated his findings to Ehrenberg and Humboldt. See 1837. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1834 | Remak | Reported filaments resembling a mold in material from the favus variety of ringworm. | Anon. | Tried to infect himself, unsuccessfully. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1834 | Runge | Isolated carbolic acid. | Garrison | It was to become a major antiseptic, before and after the Germ Theory. See Thom, Great Moments in Medicine, p. 115. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1835 | Anon. | Vaccination of infants made compulsory in England and Wales. | Schreiber | Extended to Scotland and Ireland in 1845. Enforcement left to local authorities. Schreiber W., Infectio., Editiones Roches, Basle,1987. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1835 | Bassi | Published fungal causation of muscardine of silkworms. | Ainsworth | He had worked on it for nearly 20 years (Bullock). See 1833 and 1834. The fungus was later named Botrytis bassiana (later, Beauveria). For details see Ainsworth or Bullock. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1835 | Cagniard-Latour | Reported the living nature of yeast. | Garrison | Cagniard de Latour. Garrison says 1835; Lechevalier says 1836. This was one of several such reports in the 1830s (see Schwann, Kützing). See 1876. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1835 | Oberhauser | Developed an improved drum microscope. | Bradbury | Based on 18th Century precursors, thereby contributing to the popularity of this general style on the Continent -- as distinct from the British style [bar limb, etc.]. Similar scopes were developed by Nachet and others, and the high quality and relatively low cost of these achromatic scopes made them popular on the Continent and even in Britain. (Drum later replaced by horse-shoe.) | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1835 | Owen | Described Trichinella spiralis in human muscle. | Garrison & Morton | Richard (later Sir Richard) Owen named the parasite Trichina spiralis. It was later named Trichinella. See Campbell, W. C. Bull. Hist. Med. 53: 520-552, 1979. See Chapter 1 in Campbell, W. C. Trichinella and Trichinosis. Plenum, 1983. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1835 | Paget | Reported discovery of Trichinella spiralis in human flesh. | Norman | He and Owen, using the same material, each clearly described a systemic micro-organism. They did not allege pathogenicity (indeed Paget remarked its absence in this case). Until that time, micro-organisms had been seen on, rather than in, the human body. See Campbell, W. C., Bull. Hist. Med. 53: 520-552, 1979. See Campbell, W. C., Chapter 1 in: Trichinella and Trichinosis. Plenum, 1983. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1835 | Wollaston | Made improved achromatic triplet lens. | Anon. | Date is approximate. At about this time, Wollaston made achromatic triplets, in which the lower lens of his "doublet" was replaced by two lenses. Date unknown, but was in the 1830s. Such triplets set new standard for simple microscope, and were increasingly employed in compound scopes; see 1827. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1836 | Cagniard-Latour | Observed that beer yeast contained budding globules. | Norman | Alternatively, Cagniard de Latour. Proposed that they were probably vegetable in nature, rather than being chemical crystals, as he had thought previously (before he had access to an improvised Oberhauser microscope). See 1835, 1837, 1838. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1836 | Donne | Reported Trichomonas vaginalis in male and female reproductive tract. | Norman | Alphonse Donné. Garrison erroneously gives his first name as Alexandre. Donné's report was followed by more extensive account in 1837 (q.v.). Garrison and Morton say Donné was the "first to describe living organisms in pathological conditions, as observed by modern methods." Kean, Mott and Russell, in their 1978 book, regard this as the first report of the organism as "a cause of venereal disease". Others have said that he did not attribute the disease to the organism. Donné was an expert microscopist (some six years later he was the first to describe blood platelets). His photomicrograph of the parasite was the first of a systemic human pathogen; see 1845. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1836 | Fliedner | Opened hospital in Kaiserwerth, Germany, with religious deaconesses as nurses. | Anon. | An attempt to improve the standard of nursing during the period when hygiene was widely advocated but lacked the scientific underpinning that would soon be provided by the Germ Theory. The quality of nursing at Kaiserwerth may have been questionable, but the religious motivation and devotion of its members influenced other reformers, including Fry and Nightingale. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1836 | Schulze | Reported that the development of microorganisms in sterile organic matter can be prevented by chemical treatment of incoming air. | Lechevalier | Used sulfuric acid or potassium hydroxide. This was a contribution to the long Spontaneous Generation controversy that was separate from, but relevant to, the Germ Theory. The work was cited by Pasteur. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1836 | Schwann | Showed microbial nature of putrefaction. | Garrison | Garrison gives 1836, but pub. in 1837. Cites a second 1837 paper for microbial nature of yeast and fermentation. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1837 | Amici | Introduced the hemispherical front lens in the construction of objectives for the compound microscope. | Anon. | With this he achieved a magnification of 6000x, a numerical aperture of 0.4 and a resolving power of 0.0001 mm. Information from Dictionary of Sci. Biog? | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1837 | Cagniard-Latour | Proposed that alcoholic fermentation was due to the vital action of the yeast. | Lechevalier | Cagniard-Latour (alternatively de Latour) postulated that sugar was converted to carbonic acid and alcohol. Pasteur cited this work in his major review of alcoholic fermentation in 1860. See 1836. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1837 | Chadwick | Reported average life expectancy of 45 years. | Garrison | There is debate as to the extent to which the subsequent extension is attributable to advances associated with the Germ Theory. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1837 | Donne | Reported further observations on Trichomonas vaginalis. | Kean | See 1836. See Campbell, W. C. Trends in Parasitology 17: 499 - 500, 2001. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1837 | Gerhard | Distinguished between typhus and typhoid (such clinical refinement later becoming helpful in establishing the germ theory). | Garrison | W. W. Gerhard. Settled the difference in a way that was influential, at least in U.S.A. He was a pupil of P.C.A. Louis, who described typhoid in detail in 1829. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1837 | Gerhard | Made definite separation of typhus and typhoid, getting it accepted at least in the United States. | Norman | Others had recognized one or other disease distinctly (e.g., Louis, 1829). Separation not widely accepted in England until work of Wm. Jenner in 1849. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1837 | Kutzing | a. Described and illustrated yeast cells, and proposed that all fermentations are vital processes. | Lechevalier | Friedrich Kützing allegedly did the work in 1834 (q.v.) but forfeited priority by not publishing at that time. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1837 | Kutzing | b. Reported connection between life in "mother of vinegar" and production of vinegar. | Ainsworth | Also saw the connection between the life of yeast and the production of alcohol. According to Ainsworth, he also (in same year) caused confusion and error by claiming that yeasts turned in filamentous fungi. The Kützing entries could be deleted, but they relate to the fermentation studies that helped to usher in the Germ Theory. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1837 | Kutzing | c. Reported that yeast cells are pleomorphic. | Bullock | The alleged ability of microorganisms to adopt morphologically different forms was much debated, and complicated the early evolution of the Germ Theory. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1837 | Piorry | Coined "septicoemie" (now septicemia) for putrid intoxication. | Anon. | Distinct from "pyoemie" (now pyemia) which is characterized by multiple abscesses and fever. It was thought that, in pyemia, pus escaped from suppurating peripheral lesions into the blood, thereby causing septicemia, with visceral lesions (also called putrid intoxication, especially when experimentally induced in animals). The distinction was not clear, and the subject was confused because the etiology was unknown. It now tends to be lumped together as "sepsis." It was the stage on which the germ theory of fermentation and putrefaction would be extended to the germ theory of human disease. Not cited in Garrison & Morton. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1837 | Rayer | Inoculation of glanders; shown to be contagious. | Norman | A streptococcal infection. Formerly common in horses. Usually fatal in humans. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1837 | Remak | Saw fungal filaments in favus but did not consider them the cause. | Lechevalier | Robert Remak was an assistant to Schönlein. He later accepted it as a pathogen and named it Achorion schoenleinii (currently Trichophyton). | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1837 | Ross | Began making achromatic microscope objectives by Lister's formulas. | Bradbury | They set a new standard, and included (by 1841) a 1/8 inch objective, consisting of two doublets and a triplet, and having an angular aperture of 63 degrees. By 1842 he had made one with an aperture of 74 degrees. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1837 | Schwann | Reported role of living yeast cells in putrefaction and fermentation. | Bullock | A major theoretical and experimental work. Although priority goes to Cagniard-Latour, Bullock considers Schwann the real founder of the germ theory of fermentation. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1837 | Schwann | The development of microorganisms in sterile organic matter can be prevented by heating incoming air. | Anon. | This was a contribution to the long Spontaneous Generation controversy that was separate from, but relevant to, the Germ Theory. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1838 | Cagniard-Latour | Reported (independently) role of living yeast cells in alcoholic fermentation. | Brock | Like Schwann, took advantage of improved microscope (giving 400 x magnification needed to see details of yeast cells; Brock). His paper was a summary of work started earlier (see 1836) and was a classic contribution. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1838 | Ehrenberg | Published major illustrated treatise on "infusoria," including protozoa and bacteria. | Garrison | Grossly misconstrued the internal structures of the organisms, but gave valuable illustrations. Included a family, Vibrionia, which included the genera Bacterium, Vibrio and Spirochaeta. Used indigo and carmine stains, first tried by von Gleichen 1778. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1838 | Ricord | Corrected John Hunter in showing that syphilis and gonorrhea are separate diseases. | Norman | While the contagiousness of the diseases was well known, the cause was not. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1838 | Ross | Made an objective that provided correction for the thickness of cover slips. | Bradbury | Andrew Ross. Cover slips were then becoming popular, but reintroduced spherical aberrations in the objectives (which had only recently been corrected). Ross worked according to principles laid down by J. J. Lister. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1839 | Budd | Proposed, in an essay, that typhoid fever was contagious and was spread by contaminated water. | Cirillo | William Budd did not know the (microbial) nature of the contagion, but based his opinion on first-hand clinical experience and epidemiological reasoning. The essay was made known to others but not formally published. His thesis was further developed in papers published in 1859 and in a monograph published in 1873. It was later shown that, while fecal contamination of drinking water is an important factor in transmission, person-to-person contact and contamination of premises, foods, etc., are often of greater importance. See Cirillo, V.J., J. Hist. Med.55: 363-397, 2000. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1839 | Hake | Published description of what were probably coccidial oocysts in rabbit liver. | Dobell | Thomas G. Hake. He did not recognize their parasitic nature. Included an illustration of the hepatic lesions. (Leeuwenhoek had not published his account of similar objects shed into rabbit bile.) See Dobell, C., Parasitology 14: 342-348, 1922. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1839 | Lagenbeck | Reported a cryptogamic plant (fungus) in human thrush, but did not postulate causation. | Anon. | Not in G&M. Not in Ainsworth. Not in Lechevalier. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1839 | Owen | Became first president of the Microscopical Society of London. | Anon. | The vigor of the new society in the ensuing decades reflected the growing importance of microscopy in biology and medicine. It attracted many scientists of stature, in addition to Richard Owen, and in 1866 it became the Royal Microscopical Society. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1839 | Purkinje | Introduced microtome, Canada balsam and other elements of standard microscopical technique. | Garrison | He had to overcome prejudice against the usefulness of microscopes in medicine, even to the point of working surreptitiously with a microscope. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1839 | Ross, A. | Introduced the "Lister-limb" construction of microscopes. | Bradbury | The microscope tube, the stage, and the sub-stage fittings were all mounted on a single curved vertical support. Bradbury notes the influence of this design on later microscopes. See 1843. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1839 | Schoenlein | Reported fungus Achorion in favus of scalp in group of patients. | Norman | Proposed causation. May be 2nd disease of humans to be attributed to micro-organism (first being scabies). If scabies mite is excluded as ectoparasite, this would be first demonstration of a germ in a human disease --- but superficial disease, brief report, and no impact. Ainsworth says the proposition of causation was prompted by Bassi's work, and in turn prompted Remak's self-experimentation. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1839 | Schoenlein | Separated and named typhus abdominalis and typhus exanthematicus. | Anon. | Should have an umlaut. May be spelled Schoenlein. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1840 | Anon. | Achromatic objectives achieved major impact, 1830 - 1850. | Bradbury | The work enabled by these lenses laid the foundation of cell biology, histology and cellular pathology. Those advances (especially on the Continent) in turn stimulated further advances in the microscope in the second half of the 19th Century. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1840 | Anon. | Microscopists used thin glass cover-slips to cover objects on microscope slides. | Bradbury | This entry does not refer to any single year or single author, but rather to the fact that cover-slips were increasingly used from this time. See 1820. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1840 | Anon. | Variolation declared to be a felony in Britain. | Garrison | It had been superseded by vaccination, which was safer. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1840 | Buehlmann | Rediscovered fungus Leptothrix [Leptotrichia]. | Bullock | The organism Leptotrichia is currently considered to be a Gram-negative, non-sporeforming, aerobic, ensheathed [filamentous] bacterium. The species L. buccalis is an inhabitant of human mouth. The entry is assigned to the Pathogen Class Fungi on the basis of contemporary rather than current usage. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1840 | Carter | Reported Streptobacillus moniliformis as cause of rat-bit fever. | Lee | Henry Vandyke Carter. According to Lee, this event came 47 years after the first report was made by Whitman Wilcox -- but Lee does not cite Wilcox separately. If this was a valid demonstration of bacterial causation, it is notable that it was not cited by Garrison or Lechevalier. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1840 | Farr | Promoted the "hypothesis" that epidemic diseases are caused by minute organisms carried from person to person by air. | Chase | He attributed the concept to Henry Holland, adding that it was supported by new facts and analogies from Jakob Henle. Farr was then in the office of the Registrar-General of England, and this item in one of the official reports makes it clear that the germ theory, while not yet validated, was being considered seriously by some leaders of the medical profession. Norman cites a 1838 report. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1840 | Fry | Founded a religious nursing order, which promoted hygiene, without knowledge of germs. | Fisher | Elizabeth Fry founded the English Protestant Sisters of Charity (later the English Sisters of Charity). See Fisher's biog. of Lister, p128. An example of institutional nursing prior to Nightingale's work, and prior to germ theory. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1840 | Henle | Propounded a persuasive germ theory but failed to find germs. | Garrison & Morton | Jacob Henle. Well-known teacher of Koch and progenitor of his Postulates. Cited Bassi. The epidemiologist Major Greenwood was among those who considered this contribution to be of the utmost importance; see note section of the Fracastoro entry. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1840 | Roberton | Presented clinical evidence of the contagiousness of puerperal fever. | Graham | See page 396 in Harvey Graham's Eternal Eve, 1951. In an episode in England, one midwife had a very bad record regarding the fever, while 25 of her colleagues had good records over the same period. K. C. Carter, in book review (Bull. Hist. Med. 70: 1996) says Roberton was among those mentioned in a 1995 book but whose contributions re childbed fever are merely of antiquarian interest. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1841 | Berg | Demonstrated the fungal etiology of thrush. | Garrison & Morton | He produced the disease in babies (one of whom died of candidal bronchitis and pneumonia according to Rippon). See 1844. Discovered Oidium albicans. Bullock 166. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1841 | Dubini | Discovered hookworm in miners. | Norman | Pathogenicity not clear until work of Griesinger, 1866. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1841 | Dujardin | Published major treatise on micro-organisms. | Garrison & Morton | Provided an improved classification (compared to those of Müller in 1786 and Ehrenberg in 1838). His family Vibrioniens included the genera Bacterium, Vibrio and Spirillum-- all now considered bacteria. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1841 | Eschricht | Wrote that asexual parasites such as Trichinella [muscle stage] must be regarded as immature or larval forms. | Grove | This concept was later confirmed. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1841 | Gruby | Reported fungal elements in favus (tinea). | Norman | Isolated agent and transferred by inoculation to normal skin. Rippon calls this the first demonstration of a micro-organism as a cause of human disease. Gruby pointed out the significance of this for contagiousness and future therapy. In a series of papers, 1841 - 45, he laid the foundation of medical mycology. Translation of 5 Gruby papers in Bull. Hist. Med. 16: 155-168, 1944. Ainsworth refers to this as an independent discovery of the mycotic nature of favus. See 1842 for Gruby and Candida (thrush). See 1834, 1845. Cf, Schönlein 1839. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1841 | Holmes | Preached contagiousness of puerperal fever, and transmission by medical personnel. | Magner | Oliver Wendell Holmes. Published 1843. See 1843. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1841 | Muller, J. | Described psorospermosis. | Anon. | Not cited in G&M or Ainsworth. Rash associated with infection with psorosperms -- a term formerly and loosely applied to parasitic protozoa other than haemosporidia. Psor = itch; sperm = seed. Included Brooke's Disease and Darier's Disease. Not known whether Müller postulated microbial causation. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1841 | Valentin | Recorded the presence of protozoa, now called trypanosomes, in the blood of fish. | Garrison & Morton | Not associated with disease. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1842 | Bennett | Reported the fungus Geotrichum infecting an old tuberculous cavity in a human. | Anon. | In the 20th Century infection by such soil fungi was shown to be essentially limited to individuals with compromised immune systems. See 1879 Leber. See 1844. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1842 | Berg | Found fungal agent of thrush (now Candida albicans). | Ainsworth | F. T. Berg. Independent of Gruby discovery in same year. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1842 | Chadwick | Issued major indictment of unsanitary conditions in British industrial slums. | Norman | Edwin Chadwick. Abandoned belief (similar to that of Frank in Austria at turn of century) that poverty caused ill-health; and argued instead that ill-health caused poverty. While not directly implicating germs, this thesis laid important groundwork for the control of disease by means which were, unknowingly, based on the interruption of germ transmission. See 1848. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1842 | Goodsir | Reported bacteria in human stomach (sarcinae, i.e., Sarcina, Coccaceae). | Garrison & Morton | John Goodsir. Sarcina morrhuae was proposed in 1880 by Farlow as name for [colorless] organism on salt fish. May or may not have been related to [red] organism later named Halococcus. "Coccaceae" not in Bergey's Manual, but in Index Bergeyana,1966, where it is listed as a bacterial family erected by Zopf in 1883. Association of Sarcina and Coccaceae with Goodsir is evidently retrospective. Garrison 4th. says Goodsir discovered Sarcina ventriculi in 1865. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1842 | Gruby | Described fungus as cause of "muguet" (thrush) of children. | Norman | David Gruby; called it Sporotrichum. According to Ainsworth it was named Oidium [Candida] albicans in1853. See 1841. Also in Rippon, Bulloch. In 1842 Gruby also described fungus of beard ringworm (named Microsporon [Trichophyton] mentagrophytes in 1853). | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1842 | Muller | With Retzius, found mold Mucor in lungs of owl. | Bullock | Presumably the author was Johannes Müller, but this has not been verified. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1842 | Remak | Used Schönlein's fungus to induce favus on self. | Long | Robert Remak was an assistant to Schönlein at the time. See Ainsworth for further details. Remak had noted presence of fungus in favus in 1837, but did not recognize causation. See also Gruby,1841 and other years. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1842 | Steenstrup | Published theory of Alternation of Generations, based in part on the life cycle of parasitic worms. | Garrison & Morton | Relevant to demise of Spontaneous Generation, and thus to rise of Germ Theory. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1843 | Busk | Found adult Fasciolopsis in human intestine. | Garrison & Morton | George Busk. An early report of a human infection (macroscopic agent). | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1843 | Dubini | Reported discovery of hookworm in humans. | Norman | Angelo Dubini. He had seen the parasite in 1838. His 1843 paper arose from observations made in late 1842, and included the naming of the worm (originally Agchylostoma duodenale) and discussion of why it had not been discovered earlier. Dubini, a proponent of the clinic-and-autopsy medicine that had recently come into vogue, reported finding hookworm in 20% of cadavers. He was tentative in ascribing pathogenicity to it. The generic name was later corrected to Ancylostoma. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1843 | Gruby | Described the fungus Microsporum audouini in a type of ringworm. | Norman | An example of the early recognition of fungal pathogens. Microsporum has also been called Microsporon. David Gruby named the species in honor of the "famous academician" Audouin who had already shown a similar fungus in muscardine of silkworms. While Gruby's work (see 1841) was mycologically sound, it was not highly effective in persuading the medical profession of the fungal causation of the skin disease. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1843 | Holmes | Proclaimed contagiousness of puerperal fever. | Norman | In this year, Holmes published a lengthy essay on the contagiousness of puerperal fever. In it he mentions that in lying-in hospitals there is often "a miasma, palpable as the chlorine used to destroy it...." (Page 163, Vol. IX, Holmes Works, W.C.C. Library.) In scanning this essay, I could not find any mention of washing hands in disinfectants; but Garrison says that Holmes "advocated" it, and Mann (?) says he "had shown" its value. Holmes certainly alleged transmission by medical personnel, and advocated washing and waiting between cases; but, despite reference to the use of chlorine as an antiseptic, it is not clear that he, himself, used or advocated antiseptics. (Possibly in other writings?) | Causation | General | Details |
| 1843 | Klencke | Obtained experimental evidence for the transmission of tuberculosis by cow's milk. | Garrison & Morton | P. F. H. Klencke. Work done in 1843; made no impact. According to Cummins (see entry for Villemin) Koch looked back, unjustifiably, to Klencke rather than Villemin as the pioneer of experimental transmission of tuberculosis. Cummins has grave reservations about Klencke's work. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1843 | Ross | Introduced the "bar-limb" construction of microscopes. | Ford | The microscope tube was mounted on a metal bar projecting at right angles from the vertical support. This design was introduced almost simultaneously by Powell and Leland, and was widely used by English makers for the next half century. Ford notes its similarity to the "aquatic" simple microscopes of the 1920s, and its influence on later compound instruments. The bar-limb is clearly evident in Powell and Leland's celebrated "No. 1" microscope of the 1870s. See 1839. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1844 | Amici | Made an achromatic objective with 1/7" focal length and angular aperture of 112 degrees (equals numerical aperture of 0.83). | Bradbury | The improved performance (lack of blur and color fringes) of such lenses was a great stimulus to biological research using microscopes. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1844 | Bassi | Used calcium chloride as an area disinfectant to control muscardine (fungus) in silkworms. | Lechevalier | Agostino Bassi also suggested that diseases such as plague and syphilis are caused by germs. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1844 | Bennett | Demonstrated the fungal etiology of thrush (mucocutaneous candidiasis). | Rippon | The fungus was later named Candida albicans. See 1841. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1844 | Bennett | Found mold in pneumothorax. | Bullock | It is now known that infections that cause granulomata (e.g. tuberculosis) may result in perforation of the pleurae, allowing air to enter the pleural cavity. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1844 | Danielssen | Inoculated himself and others to show non-infectious nature of leprosy. | Norman | In the period 1844-58, he inoculated himself (four times) and various patients and hospital staff personnel with material from leprous nodules. Failure to induce leprosy was taken as supportive of the non-contagiousness of the disease. See 1847. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1844 | Gruby | Found fungus, later called Trichophyton, in head infection. | Bullock | See other entries for same genus. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1844 | Mayer | Found mold, Mucor, in inner ear. | Bullock | See earlier entry for same organism. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1845 | Berkeley | Reported fungus as cause of potato blight. | Ainsworth | Rev. Joseph Miles Berkeley observed fungus of potato blight. He was consulted because of devastating blight in Ireland, leading to massive famine. Published 1846. See 1846. Bernard Dixon, in "Power Unseen" (c.1994) says Rev. Berkeley examined diseased leaf and claimed that masses of tiny threads had caused strangulation. The blight is thought to have come from Peru to Europe because fast ships meant that holds no longer reached the thermal death-point of the fungus (McNeill, p. 259). See deBary 1861. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1845 | Budd | Accepted parasitic cause of a liver disease. | Grove | George Budd. He learned of the trematode Fasciolopsis from Busk (see 1843) and included it in his treatise on liver diseases. Also cited in Garrison & Morton. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1845 | Donne | Published engraving of first photomicrograph of a microbial pathogen. | Campbell | In collaboration with Leon Foucault, Donné used a solar microscope and camera to make a daguerreotype showing the protozoan parasite Trichomonas vaginalis in human vaginal secretion.. Because the image could not be printed directly from the metal plate, the image was published as an engraving. The engraving was the only image of a microorganism included in Donné's 1845 "atlas" of photomicrographs. See Campbell, W. C., Trends in Parasitology, 17: 499-500, 2001. | Microscopy | Protozoa | Details |
| 1845 | Dujardin | Recorded the similarity between the scolex of porcine cysticerci and the head of adult tapeworms (Taenia) from humans. | Grove | The similarity had been noted by Goeze in 1784. It has been alleged that Dujardin demonstrated that cysticerci become adult tapeworms (Taenia). See Parasitology Today 9: 347, 1993. See Kuchenmeister 1854. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1845 | Montagne | Described and named fungus of potato blight. | Ainsworth | J. F. C. Montagne named it Botrytis infestans. Later named Phytophthora. Did he claim causation? See Berkeley, 1846. Also discussed in Parris book of 1968. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1845 | Siebold | Published his conclusion that protozoa were single-celled animals. | Anon. | More fully, von Siebold. A very important clarification in view of the emerging cell theory of animal and plant structure. Coined the word protozoa. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1846 | Berkeley | Published fungal causation of potato blight. | Ainsworth | Said fungus was cause of disease, not effect. Noted that his view was shared by several others (presumably they had not published). Fungal causation of potato blight was still a minority view -- and remained so until espoused by deBary, 1861-63. See 1845 on same subject. See "Bary" 1861. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1846 | Eichstedt | Reported fungal etiology of pityriasis versicolor of human skin. | Rippon | See also Eichstedt in Bullock. Microsporon furfur. See 1847; 1853. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1846 | Leidy | Found Trichinella larvae in pork. | Campbell | Joseph Leidy. This discovery would have been of great importance had it not been dismissed by another authority as a larva of a different species. See Campbell, W. C. Bull. Hist. Med. 53: 520-552, 1979. See Campbell, W. C. Trichinella and Trichinosis. Plenum, 1983. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1846 | Norbert | Introduced test plate of ruled lines. | Anon. | It represented an improvement over the more variable butterfly scales or diatom frustules. See 1825. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1846 | Panum | Showed transmissibility of measles. | Norman | In the Faeroe Islands (confirming pre-19th. Century reports to that effect). | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1846 | Rasori | Recorded hypothesis that malaria is caused by parasites. | Bruce-Chwatt | Giovanni Rasori. Bruce-Chwatt and de Zulueta (Oxford Univ. Press 1980) cite Jaramillo-Arango 1953 for Rasori's written belief that "intermittent fevers are produced by parasites which renew the paroxysm by the art of their reproduction." Presumably this was speculation, but original not checked. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1847 | Callender | Reduced mortality from post-operative infections by instituting hygienic measures. | Waller | Surgeon George Callender of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, was a leading advocate of hospital hygiene in the years immediately preceding the Germ Theory revolution. In his hospital, deaths from surgical complications fell from 33% to 10% in the period 1847 to 1867. Such demonstration of the benefits of cleanliness had little impact until the discovery of microbial pathogens provided a convincing rationale. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1847 | Danielssen | With Boeck, published landmark treatise on leprosy. | Mange | It made Bergen (Norway) an international center for the study of the disease. Clinical and pathological aspects were described, and the disease was considered to be the result of a non-specific hereditary dysfunction of the blood. Danielssen continued in this view even after the subsequent microbiological findings of his subordinate Hansen and of Neisser; see 1874 and 1879. (Unpublished essay by P. F. Mange.) | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1847 | Dempster | Used spleen enlargement as index in assessing malaria endemicity in children. | Bruce-Chwatt | An example of a pre-germ-theory physical index of infection (based on palpation). Cited in Bruce-Chwatt, Essential Malariology, 1980. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1847 | Fujii | Described human syndrome known as Katayama disease, subsequently found to be schistosomiasis. | Grove | D. Fujii (pen-name Yoshinao). Katayama was a very small village in a rice-growing area of Japan. Fujii recognized the association of the disease with wading in rice paddies. Apparently not listed in Garrison & Morton. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1847 | Meckel | Observed black pigment inside protoplasmic masses in blood of fatal case of malaria. | Harrison | Heinrich Meckel von Helmsbach. Presumably was looking at the malaria parasite, Plasmodium. The black pigment was well known in spleen, liver and brain of victims, but Meckel saw it in blood, within protoplasmic bodies (round, ovoid or spindle-shaped), and realized that it was carried in blood to other tissues. Apparently did not postulate parasitic causation. According to Bruce-Chwatt and de Zulueta (see Afanasiev) Virchow's drawing of "these bodies" was published in 1858 in Frerichs' atlas of diseases. Pigment was later reported by many others including Schultz 1848, Planer 1854, Delafield 1872, Jones 1876 (see Kean, Mott and Russell). | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1847 | Semmelweis | Reduced deaths from puerperal (childbed) fever by instituting disinfection of physicians' hands. | Norman | Reported in 1850. Disinfection was by careful washing of the hands in a solution of chloride of lime after examining any patient (in the maternity clinic). According to the English translation in Brock (1961), the purpose was to destroy "any putrefying organic atoms adhering to the fingers, as well as to remove the odor of these completely." Semmelweis was thus targeting the causative objects that were being transmitted, but did not understand their microbial nature. Extensive literature on the subject. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1847 | Sluyter | a. Found fungus Microsporon furfur (later Trichophyton) in skin. | Bullock | Agent of kind(s) of ringworm. Not clear whether Sluyter took a stand re causation. Not cited in Ainsworth. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1847 | Sluyter | b. Reported Aspergillus infection in the human respiratory tract. | Anon. | A similar report by Bennett in 1842 is discounted because of the apparent mistaken identification of the fungal agent. See Virchow 1856. Not cited in Ainsworth. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1847 | Sluyter | c. Reported fungal etiology of pityriasis versicolor of human skin. | Anon. | The condition is currently known as tinea versicolor, and the agent as Pityrosporum orbiculare. See 1846, 1853. Not in Ainsworth. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1847 | Spencer | Developed achromatic objective to a new standard of excellence. | Bradbury | This was the first time an American microscope maker equaled and even surpassed the high standards of European makers. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1847 | Tulasne | Reported evidence of fungal causation of plant diseases. | Parris | The Tulasne brothers confirmed Prevost's 1807 finding of fungus as cause of wheat bunt and extended causation principle to other diseases. Fungal causation of plant diseases will receive little, if any, further consideration in this Timeline (the concept was scientifically established by this time, if not everywhere accepted). | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1848 | Berkeley | Stated that many plant diseases are caused by fungi. | Parris | See other entries for same author. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1848 | Blackwell | Advocated personal hygiene in disease prevention. | Wilson | Elisabeth Blackwell. She advocated prevention over cure, and wrote "Nature, with its God-given remedies of fresh air, cleanliness, sunshine, exercise, is the world's best doctor." This was apparently in a thesis written early in her medical studies (while away from Geneva College, doing summer work in Philadelphia). See biography by D. C. Wilson, 1970. Blackwell was thus a contributor to the sanitary movement that preceded and overlapped with the germ theory -- and later became one of the first professors of hygiene. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1848 | Chadwick | Masterminded passage of the Public Health Act in Britain. | Garrison | Sir Edwin Chadwick. Law based on thesis that health depends on sanitation. Argued that cities must have system of incoming and outgoing fluids. This concept has been described as being as momentous for civilization as Harvey's concept of blood circulation. Brockington, in Hobson's book on Public Health. It illustrated the possibility of achieving sanitation empirically, without knowledge of germs. Emphasized local autonomy and funding. See 1842. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1848 | Nott | Published papers often cited, inaccurately, as proposing insects as vectors of disease. | Chernin | Josiah Clark Nott. In many works (see, for example, Norman) Nott is given credit for suggesting the mosquito as vector of Yellow Fever. He sometimes gets credit for proposing the mosquito transmission of both Yellow Fever and malaria, but his writings are too vague to support such conclusions; see Chernin, E., Bull. New York Acad. Med., 59: 790-802, 1983. Nott made some connection between insects and disease, but (writing at a time when the term insect was loosely used, and before the germ theory of disease had taken hold) made no clear distinction between insects as pathogens and as vectors of pathogens. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1848 | Pasteur | Discovered chirality of optically active compounds. | Anon. | Setting in train a series of researches that were of immense importance in evolution of germ theory. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1848 | Pollander | Found bacillus in blood of animals dying of anthrax. | Anon. | Observation also said to date from 1849 (q.v.). | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1848 | Virchow | With Frerichs, recognized connection between black pigmentation of internal organs and death from malaria. | Bruce-Chwatt | Another example (see 1847) of a pre-germ-theory physical correlate of a particular kind of infection. Cited in Bruce-Chwatt, Essentials of Malariology, 1980. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1849 | Brittan | Reported fungus, erroneously, in cholera. | Bullock | See 1849 Budd. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1849 | Budd | a. Reported objects thought to be fungus in cholera. | Bullock | Presumably William Budd. See 1849 Brittan. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1849 | Budd | b. Reported evidence of link between cholera and drinking water. | Doetsch | See Brittan. See Budd 1849a. In The Ghost Map, Riverhead, 2006, Steven Johnson noted that Budd's article appeared one month after Snow's report of the link between cholera and drinking water, and was less clear than Snow in disassociating cholera from miasma. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1849 | Gros | Observed amoebae around teeth in humans. | Norman | G. Gros. Named the species Amoeba gingivalis. Considered the possibility of spontaneous generation. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1849 | Nageli | Lumped the colorless infusoria together in (a new?) group Schizomyces. | Garrison | More fully, von Nageli. The name Schizomyce (Garrison uses Schizomycete) means fission fungi. See 1857. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1849 | Pollender | Observed micro-organisms in blood of cows that had died from anthrax. | Norman | F. A. A. Pollender. This observation is also said to date from 1848. Published six years later. Loeffler 1987 (see Howard translation, page 79) said that Pollender saw rods and considered them a possible cause of anthrax. Carter, in reviewing that translation, says that Loeffler mistakenly credits Pollender instead of Davaine with the discovery of the anthrax bacillus. Several other investigators, including Brauell, Leisering and Delafond, had seen rods in mammalian blood but their observations did not contribute significantly to the development of the Germ Theory. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1849 | Pouchet | Reported animalcules (vibrios) in cholera. | Bullock | No claim of causation. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1849 | Snow | Essays on cholera, stating that it is water-borne, and transmitted by mouth. | Norman | John Snow published first a self-published essay for the benefit of his professional peers and friends, and in the same year an essay in London Medical Gazette for a slightly broader medical readership. It was prompted by his experience in the 1848-49 London outbreak of cholera, from which he concluded that cholera was not transmitted by miasma, and, further, that it was transmitted in drinking water. See Steven Johnson, The Ghost Map, Riverhead Books, New York, 2006. See Budd 1849. See Snow 1854. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1849 | Swayne | Reported fungus in cholera (later discredited). | Bullock | See Brittan. See Budd. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1849 | Wilkinson | Recognized the fungal (epiphyte) nature of a vaginal discharge (candidiasis). | Rippon | According to Rippon this finding was ignored for the next forty years. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1850 | Cohn | Reported study on the pigment-producing (red) bacterium Monas prodigiosa. | Doetsch | Later named Serratia marcescens. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1850 | Davaine | Saw bacillus in blood of sheep dead from anthrax. | Long | And showed transmission? With Rayer? Delafonde? Davaine worked on anthrax 1850-65. See 1863. He associated large number of organisms with severity of disease. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1850 | Fresnius | Reported a fungus infection in the air sac of birds. | Anon. | Named the agent Aspergillus fumigatus and the disease aspergillosis. See 1815. Not Garrison or in Garrison and Morton. Should the name be Fresenius, as in 1863? | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1850 | Gillet | Introduced the achromatic condenser lens. | Anon. | Not listed in Bradbury. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1850 | Rayer | Reported elongated bodies (rods) in blood of sheep dead of anthrax. | Norman | P.F.O. Rayer. Disease (or rods?) were transmissible to other sheep by inoculation of blood. Worked with Davaine who later claimed to have written this report and sent it to Rayer for publication. See 1837. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1850 | Semmelweis | Published his use of a disinfectant to prevent human disease. | Brock (1961) | See other (1847) entry for Semmelweis. This entry records the publication of work carried out during the preceding years. English translation in Brock's 1961 book. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1851 | Anon. | Debated contagion vs. miasma, at the first International Health Conference. | Anon. | It was held in Paris and lasted six months. Delegates from twelve countries debated contagionism vs. miasmatism. This is a vivid indicator that, in the middle of the 19th Century, the germ theory had not yet become a significant factor in the medical establishment. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1851 | Bilharz | Reported discovery of a dioecious trematode (Schistosoma) in portal blood of humans. | Garrison & Morton | T.M. Bilharz. In the following year he reported a similar worm associated with the urinary bladder. These reports were in the form of letters, and did not appear in the literature until 1852. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1851 | Herbst | Reported infecting dogs with Trichinella by feeding infected meat. | Campbell | E.F.G. Herbst. He fed "trichina"-infected badger flesh to three pups (in November 1850) and later observed larvae in the muscles of the pups at necropsy. Trichinella (then Trichina) was not then recognized as a pathogen; so, while this was the induction of infection by transfer of a pathogenic microorganism, it would not have been recognized as induction of disease. According to Foster, the discovery did not get the attention it deserved. Also in Grove. See Campbell, W. C. Trichinella and Trichinosis. Plenum, 1983. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1851 | Kuchenmeister | Infected foxes with Taenia pisiformis by feeding them Cysticercus pisiformis from rabbit. | Grove | G. Friedrich H. Kuchenmeister. A major breakthrough in helminth life-cycles. Kuchenmeister called the strobilate form Taenia crassipes [not crassiceps]. He published a preliminary note for the stated purpose of establishing priority as well as advancing the subject. Counts as "causation" in present context only if tapeworm infection is seen as "disease." As a physician, Kuchenmeister probably did so see it, but the contribution could be classified as Miscellaneous or Causation. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1852 | Bilharz | Reported that hookworm was cause of Egyptian chlorosis. | Grove | His work was an extension of that of his colleague Griesinger, but actually published first; see 1854. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1852 | Kuchenmeister | Reported infecting cat with Taenia taeniaeformis by feeding Cysticercus fasciolaris from mice. | Grove | The second of Kuchenmeister's important demonstrations of tapeworm life cycles. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1852 | Perty | Published work on microbes, with revised classification. | Anon. | Not cited in Lechevalier. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1852 | Snow | Argued for germ causation of cholera. | Anon. | This was in the 2nd edition of his work on cholera, published two years before his demonstration of the role of water. Garrison gives 1849 (1st edition?). | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1853 | Auzias-Turenne | Advocated vaccination against syphilis, and stressed variation in microbial virulence. | Williams | Physician Joseph-Alexandre Auzias-Turenne. Date is provisional. Check in Burke references in Geison. According to Greer Williams, Auzias-Turenne was a vocal participant in medical discussions and may have influenced Pasteur's vaccine work. He advocated inoculating French youth with syphilis (soft chancre, or chancroid; Hemophilus ducreyi) to protect against syphilis (hard chancre; Treponema) and that this was done "a half century after Jenner's death." If taken literally this means 1853. Auzias-Turenne was going on the incorrect assumption that soft chancre was attenuated form of syphilis. His work was published posthumously in 1878, and Pasteur is known to have had a copy in his desk. Waller suggests that the importance of this contribution was promotion of the concept of natural variation in microbe virulence and host susceptibility. See same author entry for 1859. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1853 | Cohn | Reported observations on micro-organisms in drinking water. | Doetsch | Snow had linked water and cholera four years earlier, as had Budd. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1853 | Kuchenmeister | Reported infection of dogs with Taenia spp. after feeding them cystic tapeworms. | Grove | Further showing that the cysts were larvae not separate species. Cysticercus tenuicollis yielded T. hydatigera; and Coenurus cerebralis yielded T. multiceps. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1853 | Robin | Described fungal parasites of humans and other animals, but did not fully accept their role in causation of disease. | Rippon | Published in form of treatise. Reviewed literature on fungal skin infections and discussed topical treatment. Recognized that the thrush fungus could cause systemic disease in patients debilitated by other illnesses. Gave name Microsporum furfur to fungal agent of pityriasis versicolor, believing that it was related to M. audouini of ringworm (tinea). Agent is currently named Pityrosporum orbiculare. Pityriasis involves only the stratum corneum of the skin, and is so superficial that it barely counts as an infection. See 1846, 1889. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1853 | Siebold | Reported infection of dogs with Echinococcus after feeding them hydatid cysts from sheep. | Grove | von Siebold. Early demonstration of experimental infection. Work begun in 1852. Earlier, he had opposed idea that cystic tapeworms were larval stages. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1854 | Bechamp | Began study of the chemistry of sugar fermentation. | Anon. | According to his own later accounts. See 1858. Not listed in Garrison & Morton. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1854 | Beneden | Reported that feeding Taenia solium eggs to a pig resulted in cysticerci in muscles. | Grove | Name, more fully, is van Beneden. Grove says work done in 1853. This was the "other half" of the tapeworm life-cycle. Cyst to strobila shown previously; now strobila per ovum to cyst. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1854 | Cohn | Published book on microscopic algae & fungi; proposed that bacteria (Vibrionia) be classified as plants instead of animals. | Lechevalier | Ferdinand Cohn's book was a major influence. He became leading authority on bacteria, and was consulted by Koch at a crucial time in the history of germ theory (1876). | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1854 | Graefe | Reported an actinomycete as the causative agent of inflammation of the human tear duct (canaliculitis). | Anon. | Not cited in GM. Not in Ainsworth! | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1854 | Griesinger | a. Reported pathogenesis of schistosomiasis. | Grove | Urged search for anthelmintics to treat the disease by eliminating the causative agent (Schistosoma). See 1851. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1854 | Griesinger | b. Reported hookworm as cause of fatal blood loss. | Grove | At autopsy of a case of "Egyptian chlorosis," he found numerous hookworm (Ancylostoma duodenale) and noted the small hemorrhage around each. He postulated that sustained blood loss would account for the severe anemia typical of "chlorotic" patients. See 1852. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1854 | Hassall | Reported myriads of microbes in watery stools of cholera victims. | Chase | Arthur Hassall found the comma-shaped bacterium in massive numbers in the watery ("rice-water") stools of cholera victims, and reported his discovery to the Medical Council (part of the General Board of Health) in London. The significance of the microbes as agents of disease does not seem to have been appreciated by the authorities. It may not have been appreciated by Hassall himself (see Chase, p. 116) but it is worth noting that Hassall was brought into the cholera investigation by his medical colleague John Snow, who was trying unsuccessfully to discover the causative agent. Hassall must have understood that the objective was to find the causative agent of cholera, not to make incidental microscopical observations; see below. Hassall also found the microbes, which he called "vibriones" in a sample of water from the infamous Broad Street Pump during the 1854 outbreak of cholera in London (see Johnson, S. 2006). The sample had been brought to him by John Snow. See 1854 Snow. See also 1854 Pacini and 1884 Koch. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1854 | Kuchenmeister | Reported tapeworm infection in a human following ingestion of larvae from pork. | Grove | Taenia solium, the "pork tapeworm". Celebrated case, involving condemned criminal (often cited as murderer but not specified as such). | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1854 | Mouat | Published a report on the ancient Asian use of chaulmoogra oil in the treatment of leprosy. | Anon. | The oil came from the seeds of tropical trees. Studies on various derivatives in the 1920s indicated that parenteral application gave "considerable benefit" (Foster). | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1854 | Pacini | Discovered microorganisms in intestines of cholera victims and proposed causation. | Chase | Filippo Pacini, professor of anatomy at Florence. He called the microbes "vibrio cholera" (the name later became Vibrio cholerae Pacini 1854; see S. Johnson. 2006). Concluded that they could multiply in the body and cause cholera. This was 30 years before Koch's discovery of the cholera vibrio. Pacini received little support from others, probably because the observation was made early in the evolution of the Germ Theory, when the concept was considered implausible, miasmatism was in vogue, and the methods of isolation and culture had not been developed. William Farr of England was one of the few who called attention to the importance of Pacini's work. See 1854 Hassall and 1884 Koch. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1854 | Ridell | Introduced a binocular microscope. | Bradbury | J. A. Ridell. He used prisms to split and deflect the light beam coming from the objective. See 1860, 1865, 1880. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1854 | Schroeder | With von Dusch, reported that the development of microorganisms in sterile organic matter can be prevented by passing incoming air through cotton wool. | Anon. | The use of cotton plugs became a standard means of preventing contamination, and remains in everyday use. This was a contribution to the long Spontaneous Generation controversy that was separate from, but relevant to, the Germ Theory. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1854 | Snow | Reported epidemiological evidence of water as carrier of cholera. | Norman | John Snow. Waller points out that although Snow's conclusion was subsequently borne out, his evidence was not as strong as popular myth would have it. Association of cholera cases with drinking water from a particular (Broad Street) pump was also consistent with the theory that putrid material in the vicinity of the pump had given off miasma that had caused the illness. Snow had no direct evidence of the presence of a germ, nor did he have grounds for suggesting that cholera is in all cases associated with drinking contaminated water. [Met resistance because of expert opinion about Yellow Fever. See 1822, and McNeill p. 266.] Steven Johnson, in The Ghost Map, Riverhead, 2006, reviews the background, significance and mythology of Snow's contribution. Snow's famous epidemiological map was produced after, not before, the meeting of the Board of Governors of St. James parish at which a decision was made to remove the handle of the Broad St. pump. The outbreak of cholera was waning by the time the handle was removed. The map and the decision to disable the pump were nevertheless of great importance. Among other things, they played a role in converting the Rev. Whitehead from an opponent to a proponent of Snow's theory. Whitehead's own investigation then played a crucial role in confirming and extending Snow's work. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1854 | Whitehead | Investigated cholera transmission and provided crucial support for Snow's theory of transmission by drinking water. | Johnson | The Rev. Henry Whitehead joined John Snow in investigating the 1854 cholera outbreak in London. He published a couple of accounts of the outbreak. He organized and led the investigation by the Vestry of St. James parish church, and their report provided important new evidence and insights into the transmission of cholera by fecally-contaminated drinking-water. See Snow 1854. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1855 | Amici | Exhibited immersion lenses, using water, glycerine or oils as the fluid medium. | Bradbury | Apparently tested them in the late 1840s. Exhibited in Paris in 1855 | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1855 | Gerlach | Introduced ammoniated carmine as a histological stain. | Anon. | Staining was to become of increasing importance in microscopy -- including the microscopy of germs. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1855 | Humbert | Infected himself with pork tapeworm, confirming cysticercus as infective stage. | Grove | Not known whether work done, or reported, in this year. Confirmed work of Kuchenmeister. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1855 | Pasteur | Showed that crude alcohol from beet was not optically same as from molasses. | Geison | Thus moved from chemistry of optical rotation in polarized light to the study of fermentation. See Geison for full account, and discussion of motivation. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1855 | Pollander | Reported micro-organisms in blood, and especially spleen, of cows dead of anthrax. | Norman | Claimed to have made the observation in 1849. Measured and stained the "rods." He was uncertain of origin or nature, but considered the possibility that they were "products" of putrefaction and that they were contagious. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1855 | Valette | Reported infectivity of trematode cercariae following encystment. | Grove | More fully, la Valette de St. George. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1855 | Wenham | Made a much improved correction collar for cover slip thickness. | Bradbury | Francis H. Wenham. Inventor of split-beam-prism binocular microscope, etc. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1856 | Bettinger | Reported (anonymously) the inoculability of syphilis. | Norman | Author revealed as J. Bettinger, 50 years later. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1856 | Hoegh | Initiated an influential Leprosy Registry in Norway. | Irgens | In this year leprosy, which had been a medical problem in Norway for centuries, reached a peak prevalence of 20 cases per 10,000 (2,858 cases). The Registry was not only important in the success of control measures (e.g., isolation) in Norway, but was a model for other disease registries there and elsewhere. See Irgens et al., Int. J. Epidemiol. 2:81-85,1973 (cited in unpublished essay by P. F. Mange). See 1847. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1856 | Panum | Reported lethal effect of injecting putrid blood, muscle etc. into dogs. | Anon. | Also tried to determine mechanism of such putrid intoxication. Concluded that agent was neither a ferment nor micro-organism. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1856 | Perkin | Synthesized the first aniline dye (purple). | Garrison | Sir William Henry Perkin. By 1860, purple, red and blue aniline dyes were being used in microscopy. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1856 | Virchow | Reported that "pigeon-handler's disease" is caused by a respiratory fungal infection (aspergillosis). | Ainsworth | Ainsworth does not mention "pigeon-handler's disease" but says that this was the first recognition of human pulmonary aspergillosis. Does that imply that Virchow, who was notoriously unsympathetic to the Germ Theory, accepted causation in this case? Was Ainsworth unaware of Sluyter's finding? See 1847. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1857 | Brauell | Using infected blood, transmitted anthrax from human to sheep, and horse to horse. | Anon. | Observed bodies in infected blood and called them "vibrions" --- suggesting that he considered them living organisms. Inoculation results were not entirely consistent. Disavowed any proof of causation. See 1866, 1858. Pasteur referred to part of Brauell's work in an 1880 article. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1857 | Kuehn | Found nematode parasitic in teasel plant (Dipsacus). | Parris | Julius Kuhn. Parris spells it Kuehn (lacking an umlaut). Thorne (1961) notes that this was first report of plant nematodes since the several reports in late 18th Century. Named Anguilla (Ditylenchus) dipsaci. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1857 | Leuckart | Described life cycle of Trichinella spiralis, a parasitic nematode. | Grove | See Campbell, W. C., Trichinella and Trichinosis, Plenum, 1983. The pathogenicity of the worm for humans had not yet been established. See 1860. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1857 | Malmsten | Reported Balantidium coli as pathogenic in human intestine. | Garrison | Peter Henrik Malmsten. Although not mentioned by Garrison, Malmsten concluded that the protozoon causes illness when present in large numbers. Detailed case reports. Foster (1965), perhaps referring to a preliminary observation, gives date as 1856, mentions a single case of severe diarrhea, and says the organism was Paramoecium-like but probably Balantidium coli. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1857 | Nageli | Coined Schizomycetes (fission fungi) for bacteria and other micro-organisms. | Anon. | But did not decide whether they were plants, animals or organic particles (cf. Cohn, who was sure that bacteria were not animals, and who's view prevailed). Believed that microscopic fungi could arise spontaneously and, being without parents, could vary in form. This fed the controversy over pleomorphism that dogged the early development of microbiology; the observed pleomorphism of certain fungi led workers to expect the same from bacteria. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1857 | Nageli | Described cells in silkworm disease as Nosema bombycis. | Anon. | Pasteur began work on it circa 1865. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1857 | Pasteur | a. Claimed specific ferments as cause of particular fermentations. | Carter | This was his first publication on fermentation. He reported that a specific ferment was always present when sugar was degraded so as to yield alcohol. A different ferment was always present when sugar was degraded so as to yield lactic acid. According to Carter, this amounted to a claim that ferments are necessary causes. Pasteur also stated that each specific ferment, or yeast, is capable of multiplication when seeded in appropriate fluid; and that yeast can grow and sustain fermentation in a culture fluid that does not contain organic nitrogen. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1857 | Pasteur | b. Showed that milk microbes make lactic acid. | Anon. | Also true of the microbe in laboratory culture. He described it as a yeast, but it was probably Streptococcus lactis. Did not cite Schwann or Latour(?). Challenged Liebig's chemical theory, which was then dominant. By addition of chalk, he showed that pH could determine the nature of the metabolic products. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1857 | Speerschneider | Demonstrated contagiousness of potato blight fungus. | Parris | J. Speerschneider. Showed contagiousness from diseased leaf to healthy tuber. See Berkeley and deBary entries. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1858 | Bechamp | Reported results of studies on fermentation of cane sugar. | Anon. | Abstract published on January 4, so presumably the work was done, as claimed, prior to 1858. His supporters argue that his data showed (and he recognized) that fermentation is caused by the chemical products (metabolites) of micro-organisms carried in air; and that the process can be prevented by small amounts of creosote (later shown to contain large proportions of carbolic acid). Full publication in September, 1858. Béchamp claimed priority over Pasteur re airborne germs and fermentation. Whatever their merit, these claims have been rejected by later authorities. See 1854. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1858 | Brauell | Reported further studies on transmission of anthrax in sheep. | Carter | See also 1857. In a paper in Bull. Hist. Med. circa 1991, Carter said that Brauell's work was based on Pollender's work. In 1858 paper: anthrax vibrions were not found in sheep that did not have anthrax; the disease sometimes followed injection of blood that did not contain vibrions [a blow to causation]; fetal blood did not contain vibrions even though the maternal sheep blood did, and fetal blood did not transmit the disease [did he discuss filtration?]. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1858 | Docker | Reintroduced ipecac for dysentery. | Garrison | Active principle is emetine. Effective mainly against amebic dysentery. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1858 | Hoegh | Concluded that leprosy is contagious not hereditary. | Mange | This was based on study of the Leprosy Registry in Norway, see 1856. Hansen also came to consider the Registry evidence conclusive. (Unpublished essay by P. F. Mange.) | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1858 | Kuehn | Published book on fungal diseases of plants. | Ainsworth | Julius Kuhn (spelled Kuehn as alternative to use of umlaut). This work exemplified the acceptance of fungi as plant pathogens by mid-century. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1858 | Pasteur | Saw microbes in spoiled wine. | Anon. | The microbes he saw in spoiled wine at his home in Arbois, were similar to those he had just discovered as lactic acid producers in milk. This, and earlier work at Lille, "probably" gave him the insight that "diseases" of wine were due to germs other than yeast (Dubos). | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1859 | Auzias-Turenne | With Gilbert, infected patients by inoculating them with pus from secondary syphilis. | Dracobly | Joseph Alexandre Auzias and Camille Gilbert. The inoculations took place in a Paris hospital in 1859, and elicited vehement condemnation in the medical press. Four patients with chronic lupus were injected with pus taken from a mucous anal lesion on a patient with secondary syphilis. All four developed syphilis. The inoculations were given a veneer of therapeutic justification, but were primarily intended to prove the contagious (infectious) nature of secondary syphilis. The authors therefore regarded them as a clear success. All of this preceded the discovery of the infectious agent of syphilis, and preceded any clear distinction between the various forms of 'venereal disease'. The episode is discussed in detail in Dracobly, A., Bull. Hist. Med. 77:332-366, 2003. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1859 | Bazalgette | Began construction of major sewerage system in London, to reduce disease attributed either to stench or to water-borne agent. | Halliday | See Halliday, S., British Medical Journal 323: 1469-1471, 2001. Civil engineer Bazalgette got funds to build the system largely because of "The Great Stink" of 1858 (when pollution of the river Thames, and a hot, dry summer, resulted in a stench that caused Parliament to adjourn). At the time, it was widely believed that the stench (miasma) alone was responsible for disease. Some attention was also being paid to Snow's evidence for a water-borne agent in the 1854 outbreak of cholera, but the official investigation of that outbreak yielded the firm conclusion that bad air, rather than bad water, was the culprit. Bazalgette himself, in 1864, recognized that the connection between death and defective sewerage was mysterious, but concluded that in practice good drainage meant less disease. In the cholera outbreak of 1866, cases were largely confined to a small district that had not been connected to Bazalgette's system. London was spared subsequent outbreaks (and did not share Hamburg's fate in 1892, despite much trading between the two cities). | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1859 | Brehmer | Opened first TB sanatorium. | Garrison | The success of this refuge in the German mountains led to many other sanatoria. Without known microbial etiology, treatment emphasized rest, fresh air and nutrition. Only recently have attempts been made to separate, retrospectively, the benefits of "care" from the strictly physical aspects of this sort of treatment. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1859 | Hartnack | Began making water-immersion lenses. | Bradbury | Became the first to produce such lenses commercially. They were fitted with a correction collar to allow for cover-glass thickness. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1859 | Homan | With Hartwig, traced transmission of dysentery. | Kobro | By means of field studies in Norway, they traced an outbreak to one sailor who had acquired the disease in India. Epidemiological evidence of infectious nature. See Kobro, I, Annals of Medical History 7:395, 1923 (cited in unpublished essay by P. F. Mange). | Causation | General | Details |
| 1859 | Pasteur | Expressed the opinion that the causes of contagious diseases are similar to the causes of fermentation. | Vallery-Radot | The opinion is recorded in a one-sentence paragraph in a note on the fermentation of sugar. The paragraph is placed directly after a paragraph describing the role of microorganisms in fermentation, and it may be translated as "Similarly, everything points to the conclusion that contagious diseases owe their existence to causes of the same nature." In context, and in the absence of any further qualification, it is likely that the term "contagious diseases" was intended to refer to diseases of humans. The note was not published by Pasteur, but was included in Vallery-Radot's published collection of Pasteur's works. According to Vallery-Radot the note was written by Pasteur for transmittal to the Minister for Public Instruction and Culture, and through him to Emperor Napoleon III. See website of the French National Library: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k73580/f554.table. It may be noted editorially that it was not until 1865 (six years later) that Pasteur was made aware of the pebrine disease of silkworm and started working on the problems of the silk industry. This note of 1859 thus appears to be an early and enigmatic indication that Pasteur was making an association between microbes and infectious disease. Yet in 1865, Pasteur (according to Waller, 2002) was of the opinion that pebrine was a hereditary disease and that his contemporary Béchamp was utterly wrong in attributing it to microscopic organisms like those causing fermentation. In subsequent years Pasteur would come to accept the microbial etiology of pebrine. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1859 | Pouchet | Published book supporting concept of spontaneous generation, eliciting critical counter argument for germ theory. | Geison | Félix-Archimède Pouchet. As a rule, the Germ Theory Timeline does not include "backward steps" in the evolution of the Germ Theory. Pouchet's work is an exception, because of the role it played in Pasteur's final demolition of Spontaneous Generation. Pouchet (1) believed in heterogenesis, i.e. spontaneous generation of life in non-living organic material, but did not accept abiogenesis, i.e. spontaneous generation of life from non-organic material). (2) He held that ova, not adult creatures, were spontaneously generated. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1859 | Schacht | Reported nematode as cause of serious disease of sugar beet. | Parris | H. Schacht. Nematode was named Heterodera schachtii by Schmidt in 1871. Thorne, 1961, says this was the first realization of the tremendous potential of plant parasitic nematodes. [From this point on, little if any attention will be paid to plant nematodes in this Timeline. Many new species were soon described, but the concept of causation of disease was already established.] | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1859 | Virchow | Infected dog with Trichinella and discovered the adult worm in small intestine. | Grove | See Campbell, W. C., Trichinella and Trichinosis, Plenum, 1983. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1860 | Carter | Coined mycetoma for tumors caused by fungi. | Anon. | Henry Van Dyke (or Vandyke) Carter. The first such clinical condition to be described was Madura Foot, recorded by McGill in 1842, but its microbial etiology was not then known. Mycetomas are now attributed both to actinomycete bacteria and to true fungi. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1860 | Delafond | Studied rods found in anthrax, and tried to culture them. | Bullock | The large anthrax bacillus was to become a major focus of attempts to validate the germ theory. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1860 | Lemaire | Proposed treatment of wounds with carbolic acid to kill germs. | Anon. | See 1865. Carbolic acid is phenol. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1860 | Nightingale | Founded Nightingale Training School for Nurses; opposed Germ Theory until her death. | Fisher | Founded may not be right word. See Fisher's biography of Lister, 128. Florence Nightingale's work was a prime example of success in fighting germs (through sanitation) without acceptance of the Germ Theory. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1860 | Pasteur | Published major paper on role of living organisms in alcoholic fermentation. | Lechevalier | Reviewed history and summarized his own findings. Gave quantitative data, and showed that process was due to living yeast, even in synthetic medium with no protein. Said that Latour's concept had been gradually abandoned, and emphasized dominance of Liebig's concept. According to Brock, this paper ended the controversy over alcoholic fermentation. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1860 | Wenham | Introduced a binocular microscope. | Bradbury | He used a prism to split the light beam and deflect half of it up a second tube that converged on the main tube. Popular, but useful only for low magnification (because of loss of transmitted light). After about a decade, the design was superseded by better designs. [An example, made by Fisher of London, is in the collection of W. C. Campbell.] | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1860 | Zenker | Found overwhelming evidence that microscopic worms (Trichinella spiralis) caused fatal muscle disease in one case. | Grove | See Campbell, W. C. Trichinella and Trichinosis, Plenum, 1983. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1861 | Bary | Established fungal causation of potato blight. | Ainsworth | German plant pathologist Anton deBary confirmed observation of Berkley (1845) re fungal etiology (Phytophthora infestans) of potato blight, and showed transmission by spores. See also Bary (deBary) 1863. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1861 | Pasteur | a. Reported that some organisms can live without oxygen (anaerobic fermentation). | Carter | Wrote that production of butyric acid from sugar was caused by an organism capable of living without oxygen. The title refers to "animalcules infusoires". According to Geison, he noted that the rod-like organism was motile (hence "animalcule") but not when near edge of slide. Suspected effect of air and confirmed by bubbling air through liquid fermentation, thereby killing the "rods." The concept was extended to fermentation and putrefaction in general (with aerobes living near the surface of a fermentation and utilizing the byproducts of fermentation. Cohn later named Pasteur's butyric "ferment" Bacillus subtilis. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1861 | Pasteur | b. Published classic paper on germs in air. | Carter | Note from Carter: Airborne dust contains particles indistinguishable from germs of organisms [germs later became term for the organisms]. Capable of multiplication if fermentable fluid; and no fermentation in their absence. Supported by swan-neck flask experiments, where dust settles out in neck (sticks to moisture on glass?) but air goes in. These two lines of evidence showed germs necessary for culture growth, and the first line showed also that, under the right conditions, they were sufficient. Impossible, he conceded, to prove that spontaneous generation never occurred; but this work made it seem unlikely and put the burden of proof on his opponents. The turning point, although sporadic challenges were to follow. Other notes: Clearly stated that his studies on spontaneous generation arose from his conviction that ferments were living organisms, and his realization that they must either arise de novo from contact between organic matter and oxygen, or be present in the fermentable fluids and stimulated by oxygen from the air. In a short paper of 1857 he explained how his work on the crystallography of amyl-alcohols led to his work on fermentation. See also Geison re Pasteur's motivation. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1861 | Pasteur | c. Reported that specific microbes are responsible for specific fermentations. | Carter | A significant advance over the initial reports of microbes as agents of fermentation (for example, the reports of Schwann and de Latour). | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1861 | Semmelweis | Published book on prevention of puerperal fever. | Garrison | Prevention by means of disinfection, without demonstrating role of micro-organisms. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1862 | Davaine | Reported infectivity of helminth eggs. | Grove | Reported that eggs of Ascaris and Trichuris embryonate outside the host, but hatch only upon reaching the intestine of another susceptible host. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1862 | Delafond | With Bourguignon, reported studies on newly discovered mites of sheep and rabbits. | Touratier | They had earlier discovered the mites: Sarcoptes scabiei and Psoroptes cuniculi. See Touratier, L., Vet. Parasitol. 33: 45-63, 1989. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1862 | Leuckart | Found beef tapeworm, Taenia saginata, in calves fed Cysticercus bovis. | Grove | Reported in the following year. This was the "beef" counterpart to the "pork" cycle reported by van Beneden. From this point, this chronology will pay little attention to further refinements or additions concerning helminths, because their status as infective agents was established. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1862 | Mayrhofer | Applied isolation and re-inoculation techniques. | Carter | Carter refers to "early 1860s" so 1862 is arbitrarily used here. Says Mayrhofer was first to apply these "sufficiency" tests, which had been advocated by Henle. Need to check this reference and elaborate this entry. Mayrhofer is not in index of Garrison 4th edition. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1862 | Salisbury | Attempted to show that fungi (molds in the environment) caused diseases such as measles and malaria. | Anon. | His methods were soon shown to be defective. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1863 | Bary | Reported definitive study of fungal causation of potato blight. | Parris | Heinrich Anton deBary. Garrison alphabetizes under B. See Berkeley entries; see other deBary entries. Parris says fungus had been named Peronosora devastatrix in 1855, but also says that genus was erected by deBary in 1876. Says fungus now (1863) transferred to genus Phytophthora, meaning plant corrupter or plant eater. Apparently it had become Peronospora infestans in the meantime. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1863 | Bechamp | Synthesized arsanilic acid, precursor of the antimicrobial agent atoxyl. | Collard | The derivative, atoxyl, was tested vs. trypanosomes 39 years later. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1863 | Bottini | Used phenol as an antiseptic in surgery. | Lechevalier | Lister had apparently not heard of this Italian usage when he first tried phenol in 1865. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1863 | Davaine | a. Reported evidence of the bacterial causation of anthrax in sheep. | Garrison | Work prompted by similarity of rods seen by himself and Rayer (see 1850) and the organism reported by Pasteur as the butyric acid "ferment." Called the organisms in anthrax "bacteria" and later "bacterida" (bacteridies). Experiments similar to those of Brauell (see 1857) showed (a) that bacteria are always present in anthrax, (b) that anthrax can be transmitted by inoculation of infected blood, (c) that the bacteria are not present in healthy animals. From this he concluded that the disease is caused by the bacteria. Davaine, a practicing physician, used rabbits and guinea-pigs for much of his anthrax work. The papers he published from 1863 to 1870 were influential, especially in France. See article by Jean Théodoridès in Dictionary of Sci. Biog. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1863 | Davaine | b. Reported that anthrax blood was non-infective after heating at 55 C for 10 min. | Geison | Though not pointed out by Geison or by Debré, it is of interest that Pasteur (a known admirer of Davaine's work) recommended a similar degree of heating in his original "pasteurization" of wine. Unlike Pasteur's several predecessors in preserving wine by heating, Pasteur knew that preservation depended on suppression of microbial growth, so Davaine's work would be particularly relevant (and was published in France one year before Pasteur worked out his method). This is certainly not to imply that Pasteur applied Davaine's method to wine instead of blood, but rather to suggest that Davaine's report might have provided some guideposts for Pasteur's choice of test temperatures. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1863 | Demarquay | Reported the presence of filarial larvae in swelling of scrotum of human. | Grove | Presumably larvae of Wuchereria bancrofti. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1863 | Fresenius | Used potato as a solid medium for microbial growth. | Garrison | A development also associated with Koch. See 1881. See Fresnius for possible error in spelling. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1863 | Pasteur | a. Reported that putrefaction is caused by organized ferments of genus Vibrio. | Bullock | Described succession of organisms in putrefaction. Bullock says this influenced putrefaction work, which then went along two lines - (a) chemical action; (b) microbes as cause of sepsis and wound infection. Does not say Pasteur directly linked germs and sepsis etc. Is Bullock's ambiguity (p. 133) significant? | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1863 | Pasteur | b. Published first report on wine spoilage. | Carter | He alleged that different types of spoilage were due to different organisms. Some question as to whether this was an assumption or a conclusion based on evidence. See 1866. What is significance of Pasteur's use of "maladies"? See Pasteur entry for 1864. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1863 | Pasteur | c. Wrote letter to Napoleon III expressing interest in finding cause of infectious diseases. | Collard | Collard, as a reference for this item, needs to be checked. From what I have seen it is not clear that Pasteur said anything about germs in this letter -- though it is sometimes cited as evidence for Pasteur's belief in a germ theory of systemic mammalian diseases prior to his active experimentation on anthrax in 1877. Possibly a better piece of evidence would be the 1861 passage cited by Rene Dubos in his "Pasteur and Modern Science" (Anchor Books edition, 1960, page 96). An even earlier supporting document is the note Pasteur reportedly wrote in 1859 for transmittal to Napoleon III (see 1859 Pasteur). | Causation | General | Details |
| 1864 | Bechamp | Introduced the term "zymase" (now enzyme). | Anon. | Introduced the term "zymase" (now enzyme) for the active principle in yeast that is responsible for alcoholic fermentation. Also claimed for Buchner in 1897. See Douglas Home p. 75. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1864 | Budd | Demonstrate efficacy of disinfectants in control of typhoid fever. | Cirillo | William Budd. Used zinc chloride to halt spread of typhoid fever in community of nuns. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1864 | Pasteur | a. Associated a (vegetable) ferment with a wine "maladie". | Carter | The problem in this case was wine "bitterness". How significant was use of a word (maladie) meaning illness? Pasteur's intent in using the word seems important in assessing his historical role. The response of others is another issue. According to Magner (1992) "most physicians rejected the idea that the diseases of wine and beer were related to human disease." | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1864 | Pasteur | b. Lectured in opposition to theory of spontaneous generation. | Geison | Famous lecture at the Sorbonne (April 7) decisively repudiating theory of spontaneous generation, and refuting arguments of Pouchet. Included demonstration of his swan-neck flasks. According to Geison, Pasteur held that dusts may carry "the germs of disease and death: typhus, cholera, yellow fever, and many other plagues." The quote is from Geison, but it is not given by him as a quote from Pasteur. What were Pasteur's actual words? | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1864 | Steinheil | Introduced improved triplet lens for the simple microscope. | Bradbury | In Bradbury's subject index, not person index! The triplet made use of cemented lenses of different kinds of glass, and is the principle used in modern magnifiers of 5x to 20x power. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1864 | Weber | Reported results of injecting putrid fluids into animals. | Anon. | Concluded that they acted like ferments, but also concluded that bacteria were not involved. Also in 1865. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1864 | Wells | Proposed that air-borne microscopic organisms cause post-surgical wound infection and sepsis. | Worboys | Thomas Spenser Wells proposed in impressive detail his concept of the role of airborne microorganisms in suppuration and sepsis, drawing on Pasteur's reports of their role in fermentation and putrefaction. It has been said that his opinion was based on knowledge of microscopic helminths, fungi of skin disease, and Davaine's anthrax bacteria, as well as the findings of Trousseau and of Pasteur. Wells did not test the hypothesis, or use it to practical advantage, as Lister was to begin doing in the following year. According to Fisher, biographer of Lister, Lister was apparently unaware of Wells' report at the time of his first antiseptic trials. According to Worboys, Trousseau had linked microorganisms to puerperal sepsis before the report by Wells. Wells' proposition was expounded in a lecture and recorded in the British Medical Journal in the same year. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1865 | Bohmer | Introduced haematoxylin as a "dye" in microscopy. | Ford | It is actually colorless but becomes oxidized to hematin (in solution and/or tissue?). | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1865 | Gamgee | Advocated contagion-based control of rinderpest. | Anon. | J. Gamgee. See 1865 Simon. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1865 | Hallier | Alleged fungal cause of diseases. | Anon. | Published first of a series of works (1865-1870) claiming fungal etiology of many diseases of humans, animals and plants. Various objects seen microscopically in various diseases were said to be different stages in development. Faulty work, later refuted, but important because of early advocacy of germ theory. Founded Zeit. f. Parasit. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1865 | Homan | With Hartwig, traced transmission of typhoid. | Kobro | They developed epidemiological evidence for the spread of typhoid fever by itinerants in Norway. See Kobro, I., Annals of Medical History 7: 395, 1923 (cited in unpublished essay by P. F. Mange.) See 1859 Homan. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1865 | Huppert | Published review on anthrax literature, claiming that Davaine had shown causality. | Carter | According to Carter, Bull. Hist. Med. c.1991: Huppert said that Brauell had anticipated Davaine's work, and had been overlooked because Pasteur had not yet linked specific fermentation with specific ferment -- but Brauell protested, saying that neither Davaine nor anyone else had shown causation -- see 1866. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1865 | Lemaire | Proposed carbolic acid as disinfectant for wounds. | Bullock | Bullock - p. 183. See 1860. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1865 | Leuckart | Showed that pinworm (Enterobius) infection resulted from swallowing eggs of the parasite. | Grove | Leuckart and three of his students swallowed pinworm eggs, and later recovered adult worms from their feces. (Published in 1867.) Note that Davaine, three years earlier, had shown that certain helminth ova hatched in the mammalian gut. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1865 | Lister | Began using antiseptic to prevent wound infection in surgery. | Garrison & Morton | Joseph Lister (son of J.J.). Because this use of an antiseptic (phenol) was based on the theory of germ exclusion, its success was a contribution to "causation." | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1865 | Lowe | Advocated contagion-based control of rinderpest. | Anon. | R. Lowe. See Simon, 1865. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1865 | Pasteur | a. Saw "corpuscular bodies" in silkworm disease. | Bullock | Worked for 5 years, discovering in 1867 that two diseases were involved: pebrine (now attributed to protozoon Nosema) and flacherie (now attributed to a virus that predisposes to a bacillus). Later, Pasteur attached significance to this work in the context of the germ theory, especially the observation of "germ corpuscles" or spores in his original papers. Note from Carter: This was the beginning of Pasteur's studies on silkworm disease. He confirmed the known observation that such bodies were often seen in dead worms. Some considered them to be the causative "parasite." | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1865 | Pasteur | b. Commented on anthrax vaccine of colleagues. | Carter | Check Leplat and Jaillard. This was well before Pasteur began work on vaccines against fowl cholera or anthrax. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1865 | Pasteur | c. Presented oral paper on inhibition of microbial growth by pasteurization. | Debré | Presented papers on May 1 and August 14, on the preservation of wine by heating, but not clear whether the method proposed was exactly that published in the following year. About this time Pasteur took out a patent on the process, in which he named it 'pasteurization'. The experimental work had been done in 1864. While it was applied initially to wine, the method is relevant to the Germ theory because it showed that heat could be used in a controlled manner to prevent unwanted microbial growth. The preservation of wine by heating had been tried by others, and heated controversy attended Pasteur's promotion of his method. The reason Pasteur's invention was a landmark event are (1) it had rational basis in the microbial fermentation of wine; and (2) it was fast and practicable. Dubos' 1960 book gives 55 C as the temperature used in Pasteur's process; Valery-Radot's 1925 book gives 50 to 60 C and Debré's 1994 book gives 60 to 100 C (for a few moments in the absence of air). | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1865 | Powell | With Lealand, introduced a binocular microscope suitable for high magnification. | Bradbury | Better, but still not very successful. See 1860. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1865 | Simon | Advocated contagion-based control of rinderpest. | Bullock | J. Simon. As medical officer of Britain's Privy Council, he was one of those responsible for ordering measures to control the outbreak of rinderpest (cattle plague) that struck British cattle in June 1865. Beginning in late July 1865, a succession of orders called for restriction of movement of cattle and for isolation or slaughter of sick cattle and cattle in contact with them. The policy was not promptly implemented because of (a) practical difficulties and (b) opposition by anti-contagionists. Others in Britain who supported the policy were J. B. Simonds, veterinary advisor to the Privy Council; J. Gamgee, another eminent veterinary figure; and R. Lowe, an eminent politician and sometime editorial writer for the Times of London. They took a strong contagionist stand at a time when many opinion leaders (including the Times, until then) were miasmatists. The eventual success of isolation strategies brought some miasmatists to concede that a miasma could be a "contagious miasma." Fisher, Bull. 1993. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1865 | Simonds | Advocated contagion-based control of rinderpest (cattle plague). | Anon. | J. B. Simonds. See Simon, 1865. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1865 | Villemin | Showed (1865-69) that tuberculosis was due to an (unseen) inoculable agent. | Lechevalier | Jean-Antoine Villemin, physician. Beginning in 1865, showed that tuberculosis could be induced in rabbits and other animals by inoculating material from human cases, and also could be passed from cow to rabbit etc. Presented paper to Acad. Med. in 1867. Poorly received, despite clear evidence that TB was transmissable by transfer of an unseen agent. Published book in 1868. Cummins (below) says Villemin called the unseen agent a "germ." According to Brock, Koch knew of Villemin's work when beginning his search for the causative agent of tuberculosis. Villemin's work was eclipsed by Koch's later discovery of the germ. Villemin was bitterly disappointed, his sentiments being complicated by Franco-German animosity in the post-war years as well as Franco-German scientific rivalry; see S. L. Cummins in Science, Medicine and History [E. A. Underwood, ed.] Oxford Univ. Press, 1953, Vol. 2, p 332-340). See also entries for Cohnheim, Klencke. Garrison quotes Villemin: "the phthisical soldier is to his messmate what the glandered horse is to its yokefellow". Ralph H. Major's translation of an excerpt from the 1868 French publication appears in his "Classic Descriptions of Disease" Thomas, 1945. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1866 | Brauell | Argued that the literature opposed rather than supported bacteria as cause of anthrax. | Carter | See 1857, 1858. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1866 | Coze | With Feltz, published first of a series of papers linking bacteria to putrid blood. | Anon. | Not in Garrison (4th ed.). Not in Lechecalier. See 1872. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1866 | Griesinger | Showed that hookworm is a cause of disease in humans. | Grove | The Old-world hookworm, Ancylostoma duodenale, had been discovered 23 years earlier (see Dubini) but had not hitherto been considered a pathogen. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1866 | Hemmer | Reported results of injecting pus and other putrid fluids into cats and rabbits. | Anon. | Concluded that toxic effect was due to protein acting as a ferment. This was after Schwann (1837) and Pasteur (1863) had implicated germs in putrefaction as well as fermentation. Not in Garrison (4th. Ed.); nor in Lechevalier. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1866 | Kolb | Found bacteria in cholera stool. | Doetsch | O. Kolb. "Numberless bacteria bound together in gelatinous masses" were seen in rice-water discharges of patients. Cohn, cited in Doetsch. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1866 | Pasteur | a. Published book on wine diseases. | Carter | Relevant to germ theory only to the extent that aberrant fermentation is disease. Note from Carter: Reported that all wine disorders are accompanied by specific ferments, e.g. souring is always accompanied by the fungus Mycoderma aceti. Thus organisms are necessary for spoilage. Important practical implication: prevent organisms, prevent spoilage. See 1863. In this book, Pasteur published his method for preservation of wine, i.e. pasteurization. At least some information had been presented in the previous year; see 1865. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1866 | Pasteur | b. Reported transmission of silkworm disease by means of corpuscles. | Carter | He transmitted the disease by exposure of silkworms to "corpuscles" found in diseased silkworms. Pasteur was not sure that the corpuscles reproduced; they were never present in healthy worms, but not always present in sick worms; and for these reasons Pasteut stopped short of claiming causation. As interpreted by Carter, Pasteur's evidence pointed to corpuscles as sufficient but not necessary for disease causation. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1866 | Woronin | Concluded (erroneously, because of knowledge then available) that bacteria in plant root nodules were pathogenic. | Lechevalier | Observation on lupine root nodules. Similar observation by Lachmann in 1858. The role of bacteria in nitrogen fixation in leguminous plants had yet to be discovered. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1866 | Wucherer | Confirmed Griesinger's finding that hookworm causes tropical anemia. | Grove | See Griesinger entry for same year. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1867 | Buhl | Saw microbes in diphtheria | Bulloch | Not in Garrison 4th. Presumably the Ludwig von Buhl cited by Koch in a different context (as recorded in Lechevalier). | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1867 | Leyden | With Jaffe, implicated microbes in sepsis. | Bullock | See others, including Hueter. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1867 | Lister | Reported use of carbolic acid to prevent wound infection in surgery. | Brock (1961) | Based on Pasteur's report of germs in air and in putrefaction. Major insight by Lister, and major boost for germ theory -- even though germs not seen. Waller points out that in the 1860s many other surgeons were also trying to minimize post-surgical infections by hygienic means (in the wake of the work of Semmelweis, Holmes, nightingale etc). Some were even using phenol, and getting better results than Lister. Because of his focus on airborne infection of wounds, Lister tended to rely on phenol rather than cleanliness. Lister's two papers of 1867 (minus the case histories) are reprinted in Brock, 1961. Note also Fisher's biography of Lister. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1867 | Mercet | Transmissibility of tuberculosis. | Anon. | He reported confirmation of Villemin's demonstration that tuberculosis could be transferred from human to rabbit by inoculation of tubercular material, and further showed that inoculation of rabbits with tubercular sputum could be used for definitive diagnosis. Not in Garrison (4th edition). Not in Lechevalier. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1867 | Pasteur | Reported that silkworm deaths were attributable to two diseases. | Carter | One was the corpuscular disease, or pebrine; the other was a non-corpuscular, enteric-fermentation disease, or flacherie. The corpuscles were seen to reproduce (cf. 1866) and were thus microorganisms. Both diseases could be controlled by selective breeding of healthy worms. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1868 | Beale | Opposed germ theory on ground that microbes may be found in the lungs and intestiines of healthy people. | Waller | Lionel Beale. It was not yet recognized that while some bacteria are pathogenic, others are not. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1868 | Chauveau | Presented evidence for the particulate nature of the cowpox agent. | Howard | Chauveau J.B.A. of France did this work, which stimulated others to investigate disease causation. See Loeffler 1887, Howard trranslation, page 96, and especially Howard's valuable note on page 315. Chauveau layered water over vaccine lymph or Glanders pus. After standing for a day, the soluble components diffused into the water, while the solid materials stayed on the bottom. These solids, we now know, would have included vaccinia virus attached to celluar detritus and other insoluble materials. Chaveau showed that infectivity belonged only to the particute materal and did not have the nature of a fluid 'poison.' | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1868 | Hueter | Saw microbes in sepsis. | Bullock | See others, including Buhl. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1868 | Keber | Demonstrated the infectivity of vaccinia lymph after filtration, and observed objects of extremely small size. | Anon. | This is a very early isolation of a virus in the modern sense, but its significance could not be appreciated in its own time. The filter was "Swedish" filter paper. | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1868 | Obermeier | Discovered spirochaete of relapsing fever. | Anon. | Also called recurrent fever. Tick-borne Borrelia. Note that Garrison gives1873, whereas Ackerman gives1868. Lechevalier and Solotorovsky also give 1873, and say that Otto Obermeier saw thread-like structures in blood during relapsing fever bouts but not between bouts. Probably had significant impact; see LS p. 68. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1868 | Oertel | Saw microbes in diphtheria. | Bullock | Horst Oertel. See Loeffler and others. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1868 | Tommasi | With Hueter, implicated microbes in diphtheria. | Bullock | See Oertel; Loeffler; and others. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1868 | Villemin | Published his evidence for the inoculability of tuberculosis. | Lechevalier | See 1865 Villemin for specific information. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1868 | Wucherer | Reported the presence of filarial larvae in human urine. | Grove | Wucherer's name is commemorated in the filarial genus Wuchereria. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1868 | Wunderlich | Reported on significance of temperature in disease. | Anon. | Showed that fever is a symptom and not a disease. [Relate to infection]. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1869 | Drognat-Landre | Published non-microbiological evidence for infectious nature of leprosy. | Harboe | This conclusion was based on study of lepers in Dutch Guiana. See Harboe, M., Int. J. Leprosy 41:417-421, 1973 (cited in unpublished essay by P. F. Mange). See 1874 Hansen. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1869 | Fedchenko | Observed Dracunculus larvae in crustacean host. | Grove | Dracunculus medinensis, the Guinea Worm. Also given as discoverer of life cycle in following year. Both correct? Observation allegedly prompted by Leuckart. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1869 | Gamgee | Made erroneous pronouncement re babesiosis. | Anon. | He made notable and influential error in stating, after expert study of ticks and Texas Cattle Fever, "there is not the slightest foundation for the view that the ticks disseminated the disease." Roncalli, 1990, Amer. Assoc. Adv. Parasitol. [Newsletter?]. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1869 | Hoffman | a. Used potato as solid medium for cultivation of microbes. | Garrison | See 1881. See others, including Koch. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1869 | Hoffman | b. Reported use of vegetable dye (carmine) to stain bacteria. | Anon. | Such dyes had been used by Cohn to stain histological sections as early as 1849. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1869 | Huter | Saw bacteria in fluid squeezed from a puncture in erysipelatous skin. | Foster | Presumably minus an umlaut; i.e. presumably Hueter. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1869 | Klebs | Introduced hard paraffin (paraffin wax) for embedding objects in preparation for sectioning and microscopic examination. | Anon. | The cutting of objects into thin translucent section had been introduced for studies of wood in the 18th. Century, and in mid-19th. Century it was realized that soft tissues could be better studied if they were similarly supported for sectioning. Following Klebs' discovery, it was found that soaking dried tissues in molten wax allowed penetration of the tissue, providing both internal and external support for cutting purposes. A major advance. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1869 | Oliver | Did experiments (reported in 1870) suggesting that Taenia saginata is acquired by eating measly beef. | Grove | May have been done in 1868-69. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1869 | Pasteur | Reported two enteric ferments associated with the silkworm disease flacherie. | Carter | One was a "vibrion" and one appeared as "strings of grainss". He conceded that causation was uncertain. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1869 | Salisbury | Made insupportable claim that measles, typhoid and malaria were caused by fungi. | Waller | J. H. Salisbury. The claim was based on presence of fungi in patients, with no evidence to support the claim of causation. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1869 | Trendelburg | Reported experimental infection of rabbits with diphtheria. | Foster | A false membrane in the trachea followed injection of rabbits with tissue from patients. See 1871. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1870 | Cramer | Reported that granules in Beggiatoa are made of sulfur. | Doetsch | See 1887. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1870 | Fedchenko | Reported the transmission of a nematode parasite (Dracunculus) by ingestion of an infected crustacean (Cyclops). | Grove | Prompted by observations of Leuckart in 1858. This must be one of the first, perhaps the very first, discovery of a human pathogen transmitted by an invertebrate intermediate host. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1870 | Klebs | Introduced use of unglazed clay cells, connected to air pump, for filtering out bacteria. | Waterson | (Waterson, p. 10). The work was apparently done in 1870-71. Six years later, Pasteur used Plaster-of-Paris in the same way, and (with Joubert) moved into medical bacteriology. Waterson's [source?] is a 1962 paper by Roethlin (in German). | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1870 | Langhans | Reported erythrocytes inside leucocytes around hemorrhagic foci. | Anon. | Precursor of the phagocyte concept that was soon to become prominent in medical bacteriology. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1870 | Lewis | Saw amebae in cholera stools, and recognized that they were not the causative agent. | Foster | Timothy Lewis. Not significant, then or now. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1870 | Nassiloff | Saw microbes in diphtheria. | Bullock | See Oertel; Loeffler; others. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1870 | Pasteur | a. Published major book on silkworm diseases. | Carter | Apparently he believed (?) that pebrine was caused by the corpuscles (see 1866) and flacherie by the vibrions and their resultant enteric fermentation (see 1869). According to Carter he was cautious in claiming causation, especially in the case of flacherie (the organisms being sufficient, but not necessary, for disease). Pasteur cited Bassi's work. Claimed to have thought of germs in contagion and organic decomposition. Was this wishful thinking arising from Lister's work? How and when did Pasteur link germs with contagious disease or putrefaction of human tissues? Dubos (1960 book) points out that the pebrine work had no impact on medical thinking (and that the same was true for the 1850 studies by others on the fungal causation of potato-blight). | Causation | General | Details |
| 1870 | Sanderson | Confirmed Chauveau's evidence for the particulate nature of the cowpox agent. | Anon. | See 1868. | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1870 | Winge | Saw microbes in endocarditis. | Bullock | Not in Garrison; not in Lechevalier. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1871 | Bastian | Reported his strong opposition to the germ theory of disease. | Worboys | Charlton Bastian, a strong defender of Spontaneous Generation, conceded that germs were associated with disease, and might even be the result of disease, but were not the cause. He argued his position in a major newspaper, and the significance of the event in the present context is that it occurred during a renewal of the Spontaneous Generation controversy, and after the important reports of Pasteur, Lister and Koch. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1871 | Hansen | Saw rod-shaped microbe in leprosy. | Long | Hansen was not certain of causation. Although Long simply states that the rods were seen by Hansen in 1871, the earliest unambiguous evidence points to 1873 as the yer in wich the observation was made. In the Dover 1965 edition of Long's book, the index gives Page 245 for the Hansen entry. It should be Page 150. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1871 | Klebs | Found that anthrax germs could be removed from a solution by filter. | Anon. | The abilitiy to remove bacteria from cultures (as opposed to destroying them in culture) was to be of immense importatnce in medical bacteriology. This was only one of many pioneering contributions made by Edwin Klebs. See 1871 Tiegel. See 1884 Chamberland. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1871 | Oertel | Infected rabbits with diphtheria by injecting tissue from human false membrane into trachea. | Anon. | This confirmed work by Trendelburg, see 1869. Not in Lechevalier. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1871 | Pasteur | Began investigations on the fermentation responsible for the production of beer. | Geison | He continued to be involved in the broader issues of microbes and fermentation, and would not become involved in the microbial causation of disease of higher animals for another half dozen years. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1871 | Recklinghausen | Implicated microbes in sepsis. | Bullock | More fully, von Recklinghausen. Not the first such report.. See "sepsis" contributions of other authors. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1871 | Tiegel | Reported result of filtering anthrax blood through plaster of Paris. | Anon. | Material filtered out was infective, but filtrate was not. In his paper circa 1991, K. C. Carter says: work was under direction of Klebs; was attempt to answer contemporary ojections to germ theory [of Davaine and others]; was not widely successful. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1871 | Weigert | Stained bacteria with carmine. | Garrison | Garrison says Carl Weigert was first to stain bacteria. In any case, staining became of immense important in the validation of the germ theory. Weigert employed aniline dyes four years later. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1872 | Birch-Hirschfeld | Reported that cocci injected into the bloodstream may be engulfed by leucocytes. | Anon. | This was a precursor of the phagocyte concept that was to gain immense importance in medical bacteriology. Not in Lechevalier. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1872 | Cohn | Published book on bacteria, one of his many contributions to bacteriology. | Doetsch | Argued that bacteria could be classified into genera and species, based provisionally on morphology (at the species level) but open to the use of other characteristics. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1872 | Cohn | Saw microbes in sepsis. | Bullock | See earlier contributions under "sepsis." | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1872 | Coze | With Feltz, published summary of work on bacteria and putrid blood. | Bullock | See 1886. Reported bacteria in blood of humans with various diseases. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1872 | Davaine | Reported studies on septicemia and putrefaction. | Bullock | Concluded from his experiments "thus septicemia is a putrefaction, a putrefaction occurring in the blood of a live animal." Also said that the agent of septicemia "thus became more active in passing through the system of a live animal." Some uncertainty about the year. Have read elsewhere that he reported, in this year, evidence that cause was bacterial. Was this stated explicitly? | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1872 | Eberth | Added to Davaine's already strong evidence for the bacterial causation of anthrax. | Anon. | After dilution of infected blood, sediment was infective but supernatant was not. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1872 | Eberth | Saw microbes in diphtheria. | Bullock | See Loeffler, Klebs and others. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1872 | Eberth | Saw microbes in endocarditis. | Bullock | Was this noted by KLebs in his1878 study of endocarditis? | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1872 | Heiberg | Saw microbes in endocarditis. | Bullock | See Eberth on same subject in same year. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1872 | Lewis | Reported the presence of filarial larvae in human blood. | Grove | Timothy R. Lewis. Kean calls this the first demonstration of a micro-organism in the peripheral blood of humans. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1872 | Schroeter | Reported his studies on the occurrence of pure cultures of microbes on the cut surface of boiled potatoes. | Brock | Koch almost certainly knew of this work but did not cite it in his great paper of 1881, which dealt with the use of solid media. Several works of Schroeter are given in Index Bergeyana 1966. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1872 | Vulpian | Supported findings of Davaine and suggested that septicemia could be called bacteremia. | Bullock | This suggests that Davaine had been quite explicit about bacterial cause of septicemia; see his entry for this year. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1872 | Waldeyer | Microbes in endocarditis. | Bullock | See Eberth entry for this year. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1873 | Abbe | a. Published new theoretical basis for image formation in microscopy. Introduced concept of numerical aperture. | Bradbury | Ernst Abbe had become technical advisor to firm of Carl Zeiss in 1866, and was later to become partner and then proprietor. He was major factor in making it possible for his compatriots to become leaders in the development of the germ theory. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1873 | Abbe | b. Developed a two-lens condenser ("illuminator") for use with his objectives. | Anon. | Two-lens condensers had been used periodically since the 18th. Century, but Abbe popularized their use. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1873 | Budd | Recognized contagious nature of typhoid fever, and proposed, on epidemiological grounds, a microbiological causation. | Cirillo | One of many contributions to be found in his treatise on typhoid fever, published in 1873 (seven years before Eberth showed that his hypothesis was correct). His treatise was influential in expounding the value of hand-washing and numerous other hygienic measures. See 1839 Budd. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1873 | Davaine | Reported the antiseptic property of iodine and other chemicals. | Geison | Reference to iodine not taken from Geison. According to Geison, Davaine claimed that various antiseptics could render anthrax blood non-infective ("non-offensive") and could also be used to treat the disease. The antiseptics did not include carbolic acid. See other Davaine entries. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1873 | Hansen | Saw microbes in lymph nodes of leprosy cases. | Birch | Birch, C.A., Hansen's Bacillus. Practitioner, 210: 443, 1973; cited in unpublished essay by P. F. Mange. The finding was not published until the following year; see 1874. Lymph node tissue often becomes abnormal in leprosy, and, if true in this case, would have lent added significance to the finding. Hansen had been dealing with leprosy patients since 1868, and by 1872 was convinced that it was an infectious disease. He later claimed to have seen the bacilli in 1870 or 1871, but also acknowledged uncertainty about the time and place. There is evidence that he began to look for microbes (in blood) in 1871 or 1872, found them (in leprous nodules) 28 February 1873, and submitted his report to the Norwegian Medical Society in the fall of 1873. See 1871,1879. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1873 | Klebs | a. Saw microbes in sepsis. | Bullock | See Davaine and others for earlier observations. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1873 | Klebs | b. Tried (successfully?) to induce tuberculosis in animals by injecton of milk. | Evans | These findings supported work of Villemin (1865) re T.B. For brief discussion of relative contributioons of Klebs and Koch to causation, see Evans, A. S. Causation and Disease, Plenum. 1993. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1873 | Klebs | Described a germ, Microsporon diphtheriticum, as causative agent of diphtheria. | Anon. | But later rejected this germ (fungus turning into coccus) in favor of a bacillus. See 1883. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1873 | Koch | Began work on anthrax; saw rods in sheep blood and evidence of spore formation. | Brock | In his notebooks, Robert Koch recorded evidence of what came to be known as endospores. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1873 | Loesch | Described Entamoeba histolytica. | Foster | Recognized editorially as a milestone in the history of parasitology, in Parasitology Today 9:347, 1993; see 1875. Same as 'Losh' with umlaut. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1873 | Muller | Suggested that bacteria, in nature, may convert ammonia to nitric acid. | Doetsch | A. Mueller. See 1877. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1873 | Murchison | Traced a London typhoid outbreak to polluted milk, but did not accept germ theory of infection. | Anon. | See Snow 1854. Not in Lechevalier. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1873 | Obermeier | Observed spirochaete of relapsing fever. | Norman | Later named Borrelia sp. Tick borne. See 1868. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1873 | Rivolta | Reported an organism in lesions of horses, and named it Cryptococcus farciminosum. | Anon. | It has sometimes been put in the genus Histoplasma or the genus Blastomyces. This disease, involving skin and lymphatics, is called epizootic lymphangitis. Not in Lechevalier. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1873 | Thaon | With Grancher, supported findings of Villemin concerning transmissibility of tuberculosis. | Norman | Also supported by Cohnheim. It seems likely that this Jacques-Joseph Grancher was the Grancher later associated with Pasteur in his rabies work, but this has not been checked. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1873 | Tolles | Designed and made a homogeneous immersion system. | Bradbury | He used thinned (soft) Canada balsam as the immersion fluid (the refractive index of the balsam was approximately the same as that of the cover glass). This was apparently the first practical homogeneous immersion system, but balsam was not as suitable as the oil introduced by Abbe; see 1879. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1874 | Anon. | Vaccinaton of infants against smallpox made a legal reguirement in Germany. | Schreiber | With re-vaccination in 12th year of age. According to Werner Schreiber, large losses of French troops to smallpox in the Franco-Prussian war suggest inadequate vaccination. Schreiber also says that vaccination was "enforced by law in France" in 1902. Schreiber W., Infectio., Editiones Roches, Basle,1987. | Immunology | Viruses | Details |
| 1874 | Cohn | Described what would now be called actinomycosis, in the lachrymal canal. | Anon. | Named the organism Streptothrix foersteri. New genus and species. Disease "lumpy jaw" caused by same or related species of Actinomyces? Did Cohn postulate causation? Here assigned to the pathogen class Bacteria; but organisms of this type were generally regarded as fungi at this time. See Israel; Wolff; Hartz. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1874 | Hansen | Reported observation of a bacterium in leprosy. | Foster | This entry is for the report (for which the year is not in dispute) not the observation (for which the year is uncertain. Hansen was not sure that the object seen was a bacillus or that it was causative, but unlike most others he was sure that the disease was infectious, not hereditary. Foster says it was the first description of bacterial causation of disease in humans. In conceding that he had not proved causation, Hansen was correct and forthright, but left himself open to challenge concerning priority. See 1871,1873, 1879. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1874 | Jurgensen | Argued that lobar pneumonia is infectious and caused by a specific agent as with typhoid. | Anon. | Transmissibility was not then self-evident in this disease. Not in Garrison. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1874 | Panum | Suggested that leucocytes played role in the body's defense against bacteria. | Anon. | He thus anticipated, to a degree, the work of Metchnikoff (see 1882). | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1874 | Pasteur | Argued that putrefaction was microbe-induced. | Carter | This was part of his campaign against Spontaneous Generation -- germs in decay as well as in fermentation. Preceded by about 3 years his involvment in infectious diseases of mammals. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1874 | Roberts | Noted that "most observers" recognized that the air carries large numbers of fungal spores. | Anon. | This comment, made in the context of preventing contamination of cultures, was written in England 13 years after Pasteur's celebrated paper on microbes in the air. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1874 | Roberts | Reported observations on antagonism between bacteria and microscopic fungi such as Penicillium glaucum. | Lechevalier | William Roberts. The observations were made in the course of in vitro cultivation, and while they may be said to foreshadow the antibiotic era, their therapeutic implications were not recognized. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1875 | Anon. | At meetings of the Pathological Society of London, the germ theory of disease was hotly debated. | Foster | This illustrates the variable impact made by "microbe hunters" up to this point, and highlights the immense impact of the events of the ensuing few years. As Foster points out, one medical journal (and doubtless many others) considered the matter unsettled even in 1877. Debate in this year also menetioned in Lechevalier.. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1875 | Anon. | Introduced "differentiation" to the staining of tissues. | Anon. | The date is an approximation, and no individual is known to have been solely responsible, but at about this time, "differentiation" was introduced to microscopical stain technology. It refers to the removal of excess stain by immersion of stained tissue in ethanol. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1875 | Brauell | Observed anthrax bacillus in human. | Schwabe | Transmitted disease from man to man, and horse to horse, by inoculation of blood. Cited by Schwabe (1964) but neither date nor reference given. Cited as before work of Koch, so 1875 is arbitrarily assigned here. Pasteur referred to it in writing in 1880, again implying that it preceded the 1876 work of Koch. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1875 | Eberth | Found bacteria on surface of human skin and in sweat glands and hair follicles. | Anon. | This was of great importance in surgical asepsis and led to the tradition of "scrubbing up." It helped to reveal that Lister's concept of excluding air from wounds was largely misdirected. Later, after Koch had identified the germs responsible for wound infection (see 1878) it was realized that surgical instruments and other objects, as well as skin, were sources of bacterial contamination. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1875 | Feser | Found bacteria in cattle blackleg. | Stalheim | T. Von Feser. He found rod-shaped bacteria in blood of cattle that had died of blackleg disease (now known to be clostridial infection). See 1887. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1875 | Kelsch | Saw malarial pigment in clear protoplasmic bodies as well as in leucocytes; did not recognize these bodies as parasites. | Harrison | Achille Kelsch. As a pathologist he mostly examined fixed tissues. Also saw pigment in fresh blood film and realized its diagnostic value. Laveran knew of this work, but never cited it. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1875 | Klebs | Reported inconclusive evidence of the microbial causation of pneumonia. | Foster | See Pasteur and lobar pneumonia in 1880-81. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1875 | Koch | Developed method for culture of anthrax bacilli, and observed complete spore formation. | Brock | In the process of inoculating a rabbit intraocularly with tissue from an anthrax-infected rabbit, Koch observed the suitability of aqueous humor for culture of anthrax bacilli. He also found that cultures on slides did especially well if maintained at 30-35 C, and if kept from drying yet not deprived of air. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1875 | Losch | Reported amebae as almost certain cause of severe dysentery in a human. | Ackerknecht | Also spelled Loesch. See book by Kean, Mott and Russell. Successfully transmitted the infection to a dog. Detailed description of disease and pathogen. Exceedingly cautious and correct, in saying that dysentery might, on the evidence he had, have been merely a predisposing factor leading to massive invasion of colon tissue by amebae. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1875 | McConnell | Reported a new trematode, Clonorchis (Asiatic liver fluke) and described its pathogenicity. | Grove | He considered it "unequivocally" responsible for severe liver disease. Had found the fluke in the previous year. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1875 | O'Neill | Reported microfilariae (of Onchocerca) in human skin. | Grove | Considered it the cause of the West African skin disease "craw-craw." Equivalent to onchocerciasis. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1875 | Pasteur | Claimed that ammoniacal urine was the result of microbial action. | Carter | Apparently he made the claim in a lecture, published in the same year. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1875 | Rokitansky | Was first to show bacteria in lesions of endocarditis. | Garrison | Date uncertain. See 1872! | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1875 | Schroter | Used potato as solid medium, and identified bacteria by characteristics of culture. | Anon. | Not in index of Garrison 4th. A discovery made independently by Koch, and usually attributed to him. See 1881. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1875 | Weigert | Published comprehensive analysis of the nature of bacteria. | Bullock | Said bacteria in necrotic lesions (in early smallpox) preceded the necrosis. Influential, see Bullock, p 202. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1875 | Weigert | Stained bacteria with aniline dye, "methyl violet." | Long | Prompted by work of Ehrlich, 1875.. Collard says that this first synthetic stain for bacteria was methylene blue. The bacteria were stained in suspension and examined in wet preparations; see 1877. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1876 | Anon. | Exhibited the latest advances in the design of microscopes. | Richards | On view, at the Central Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were numerous microscopes, including 50 English, 18 American, 6 French, 1 Japanese and a few German. It was improved microscope technology that enabled Koch to make his major discoveries, beginning in this very year. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1876 | Bancroft | Found adult Wuchereria bancrofti in a lymphatic abscess and in hydrocoel in a human. | Grove | Josheph Bancroft. (Reported on his behalf, by Cobbold, in the following year). | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1876 | Bausch | Began factory production methods for microscopes. | Richards | This was after he had seen exhibition of numerous microscopes in Philadelphia. O. W. Richards considered this the beginning of the end of small shops and custom-made instruments (a trend hastened by the death of several leading makers). | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1876 | Bollinger | Recognized infectious nature of actinomycosis. | Rippon | Named it lumpy jaw. Presumably in cattle. Agent now Actinomyces bovis. Then a "fungus"; later a "filamentous bacterium." Sometimes confused with Actinobacillus. See Hartz; Cohn; others. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1876 | Cohn | Found heat-resistant spore of Bacillus subtilis (published in following year). | Garrison | See 1877 entry for the same investigator. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1876 | Cohn | Published major study of heat in the sterilization of various liquids and solids. | Anon. | Sterilization techniques were central to the validation of the germ theory, and of obvious practical importance. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1876 | Fuerbringer | Reported that the fungus Mucor was an agent of pulmonary disease in humans. | Anon. | This has been borne out, but there is some question as to the identification of the fungus. See 1885. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1876 | Klebs | Published comprehensive theory of the bacterial causation of disease. | Carter (see Notes) | Analysed by K. C. Carter, Bull. Hist. Med., 75: 771-781, 2001. Edwin Klebs dealt with schizomycetes, by which he meant bacteria and fungi. His theory rested on 4 "fundamental" postulates: the microorganisms (1) never occur in the tissues or fluids of healthy animals; (2) do not arise spontaneously, even in a medium suitable for their growth; (3) do not confer pathogenicity on medium in which they have grown and from which they have been removed; and (4) occur in distinguishable forms that are responsible for distinguishable diseases. Carter argues that, whereas earlier germ-theory investigators considered microbial causation exceptional among diseases, Klebs considered it the norm. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1876 | Koch | a. Asserted bacterial causation of anthrax and demonstrated evidence in public. | Norman | He demonstrated publicly the life cycle of the bacillus, and understood the significance of the spore in transmission. The demonstration, in Breslau, had great impact because of enthusiastic reception by Cohn, Cohnheim and others. A landmark in the history of the germ theory. Published in following year, see 1877. For details see Brock biography of Koch. In Bull. Hist. Med. c. 1991, K. C. Carter emphasizes the element of "necessary" causation in this work (essentially the demonstration that the germs are always present in a case of the disease), and downplays the element of "sufficient" causation (essentially the demonstration of transmission by isolation and inoculation of germs). He concedes that "for most medical purposes necessity was more useful than sufficiency", but suggests that sufficiency was the much-sought key to proof of causation. In his view, Koch and Pasteur were, in a sense, complementary in that Koch provided the necessity component and Pasteur the sufficiency component. This is a simplification of Carter's analysis, and the original should be consulted. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1876 | Koch | b. Reported bacteria in local lymph cells of frog after implantation of infected tissue. | Anon. | Precursor of phagocytosis. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1876 | Koch | c. Used hanging drop method for study of anthrax bacillus. | Anon. | An important advance in microscopy, emerging from, and contributing to, an important advance in the germ theory. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1876 | Koch | d. Introduced the use of the white mouse as a laboratory animal. | Brock 1999 | Koch was not the first to use animals, including mice, for laboratory research. In his anthrax studies Koch used wild gray mice for experimental infections, but subsequently used tame white mice. Apparently this dates from 1876 or shortly thereafter. An elderly man who had befriended Koch's daughter Gertrud sent her pet white mice as a gift. When they multiplied, the progeny became Koch's lab animals. The story is told by Brock in a footnote. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1876 | Krishnaswami | With Whitmore, described a bacillus in melioidosis. | Lee | Disease caused by Pseudomonas pseudomallei but reference cited does not state role of Krishnaswami and Whitmore re causation. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1876 | Normand | Reported Strongyloides (Anguillula) stercoralis as a new nematode parasite of humans. | Grove | Reported it as the apparent cause of severe diarrhea. The parasitic female worm is so small that it could be considered a microbe (no parasitic male has been found). | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1876 | Pasteur | a. Cultured an organism and used its "ferment" to make urine ammoniacal. | Carter | He cultured the microorganism, precippitated its soluble enzyme ("ferment") and used it to transform diluted urine into ammonium carbonate, in vitro. According to Carter, this "isolation and reinoculation" was a key factor in demonstrating sufficient causality, and an advance over his recent studies on silkworm disease and beer spoilage. At this time (1870s) most physicians assumed that a given disease could have many causes -- any one of which could be a sufficient cause, but not a necessary cause (since alternative causes existed). Carter holds that this view was supported by the newly popular emphasis of pathological anatomy, in which autopsy findings were sufficient to explain clinical symptoms, but which in turn might have had any of a number of causes. Pasteur's experience, in contrast, would have led him to look for one necessary cause, one that would be applicable to every case of a particular disease. The use of pure cultures, as in this study on urine, would be needed to prove that the cause in question would also be sufficient, i.e. able by itself to cause the disease. Carter does not suggesst that Pasteur consciously made such distinctions between types of causality. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1876 | Pasteur | b. Published book on the role of microbes in production of beer. | Lechevalier | From now on, worked on diseases of vertebrates. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1876 | Pasteur | c. Sterilization by heat at 115 - 120 C under pressure. | Collard | Apparently the source of the current standard. For Koch's method of steam sterilization, see Brock's 1999 book. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1876 | Salomonsen | Introduced a capillary-tube method for isolating bacteria from putrefying blood. | Doetsch | Cited by Koch in 1877 paper. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1876 | Tyndall | a. Reported antagonism between a mold (Penicillium) and bacteria in vitro. | Lechevalier | Not influential. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1876 | Tyndall | b. Produced experimental evidence for the transport of microbes by airborne particles. | Waller | The role of air in transporting germs was central to Pasteur's demolition of Spontaneous Generation, and assumed an excessive importance Lister's antiseptic surgical methods. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1876 | Weigert | Saw microbes in sepsis. | Bullock | See several prior contributions on this subject. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1877 | Bert | Reported evidence allegedly refuting Koch's claim that anthrax was caused by a bacterium. | Howard | French physiologist Paul Bert believed, on the basis of experimentation, that high oxygen tension killed all microorganisms. He subjected anthrax blood to compressed air, and injected it into test animals. The animals died, but bacteria were not found in their blood. Loeffler (see Howard translation, page 186-7) suggests that the animals may have died of septicemia unrelated to anthrax and caused by an organism (Pasteur's Vibrion septique that was not killed by oxygen. After collaboration with Pasteur, Bert accepted the bacterial causation of anthrax.Loeffler wrote that Bert's challenge may have been the impetus for Pasteur's entry into anthrax research. Several other workers had similarily muddied the waters by reporting 'anthrax wirthout bacillli.' On the other hand, the impetus may have been Koch's 1876 report on anthrax, which Pasteur cited.Whatever the impetus was, Loeffler, writing as early as 1887, concluded that it 'finally persuaded Pasteur to give in to a desire which he had held for a long time, to tackle the difficult problem of the origin of infectious disease by employing methods which he himself had developed.' This would seem to be consistent with the idea that Pasteur's early work on silkworm disease and the 'malady' of wine etc were not regarded by Pasteur or his contemporaries as bearing on infectious disease as generally understood. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1877 | Bilroth | Introduced term "streptococcus." | Foster | Gave the name to germs arranged in pairs or chains and seen in septic wounds. He lumped them with other forms as a single organism, "cocco-bacteria septica," but made no advance on Lister's concept of etiology of wound infections (and perhaps retreated from it). | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1877 | Burrill | Reported micro-organisms as possible agents of disease in plants. | Doetsch | Thomas J. Burrill. The presence of bacteria in root nodules of leguminous plants had been noted since 1858, but these had been (would be?) shown to be beneficial. Burrill's work appeared in a number of papers in the following years, and was focused on blight of fruit trees. He described "very minute moving particles" in diseased tissue, and noted their similarity to the spores of other (non-parasitic) fungi. See Burrill entry for 1879. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1877 | Cohn | Reported that the hay bacillus has a heat-resistant spore form. | Brock (1961) | Garrison (4th edition) points out that Ferdinand Cohn discovered spore of Bacillus subtilis in 1876 (after Davaine's anthrax work and before Koch's anthrax work but in the same year as Koch's work). The discovery was not published until the following year. English translation in Brock, 1961. Cohn's work was a major factor in resolving the confusion resulting from inconsistency in the attempts of various workers to sterilize liquids by boiling. It was thus an important contribution to the spontaneous generation debate and to the methodology of microbiological science. The paper included a plate bearing drawings by Koch of the anthrax bacillus, and Cohn pointed out that the drawings could actually represent both B. anthracis and B. subtilis. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1877 | Harz | Described actinomycosis in cattle. | Anon. | Named the organism Actinomyces bovis (regarding bacteria as fungi as was common until mid-20th Century). Actinomycetes continued to be regarded as fungi until the late 20th Century, at which time they were considered filamentous bacteria. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1877 | Koch | a. Published powerful evidence of the bacterial causation of anthrax, and described life cycle of the responsible bacillus. | Brock (1961) | The work had been announced the previous year, see 1876. The 1877 paper became a classic in the history of medicine, and a translation appears in Brock, 1961. In Bull. Hist. Med. c. 1991, K. C. Carter emphasizes the element of "necessary" causation in this work (essentially the demonstration that the germs are always present in a case of the disease), and downplays the element of "sufficient" causation (essentially the demonstration of transmission by isolation and inoculation of germs). He concedes that "for most medical purposes necessity was more useful than sufficiency", but suggests that sufficiency was the much-sought key to proof of causation. In his view, Koch and Pasteur were, in a sense, complementary in that Koch provided the necessity component and Pasteur the sufficiency component. This is a simplification of Carter's analysis, and the original should be consulted. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1877 | Koch | b. Published the first photomicrographs of bacteria. | Brock | Koch combined a long-standing interest in photography with his new interest in bacteriology to improve documentation and communication of developments in the latter. He thought that examination of a photograph could be even better for seeing fine detail than direct observation through the microscope. Included in the publication were photomicrographs of anthrax bacilli as stained rods in spleen tissue and unstained spores in culture. The photos were made by the wet-plate method. In the published paper the photos were actual photographic prints, fixed by hand onto each plate on each copy of the journal. In contrast, the photomicrograph made by Donné some 30 years earlier of a protozoan parasite, was a daguerrotype and was published in the form of an engraving because there was no negative (see entry for Donné, 1845; and Campbell, W. C., Trends in Parasitology, 17: 499-500, 2001). | Microscopy | Bacteria | Details |
| 1877 | Koch | c. Used water-immersion lens to study bacteria. | Anon. | Possibly began using it in 1876. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1877 | Koch | d. Made dry films of bacteria and stained them with methylene blue. | Brock | The films were air-dried and then fixed in ethanol (as in Ehrlich's method for blood films). A cover-slip was added for permanence. This note was not based on Brock, but the work is thoroughly coverd by Brock. Brock stressed the importance of the discovery that bacteria could be dried on a slide without perceptible morphological distortion. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1877 | Pasteur | a. Reported microbial causation of anthrax. | Carter | He induced anthrax in cattle by injecting filtered anthrax bacilli. He acknowledged Koch's prior isolation of the anthrax bacilllus, but Pasteur believed that he had shown that the bacillus was a sufficient cause whereas Koch had [only] shown it to be a necessary cause (always present, although sometimes only as spores). Carter says sufficiency was virtually ignored in Koch's 1876 paper. Koch, however, did inoculation experiments, and reported them in the 1876 paper -- so presumably Carter here refers to the charge that Koch had not entirely ruled out the possibility that some factor other than the bacillus was responsible for the anthrax in inoculated animals. Koch, however, had isolated the bacteria and grown them in ocular fluid through several passages, and shown that they were infective to mice. He also transmitted the disease serially in mice through eight passages (using pieces of spleen tissue). Pasteur had subsequently grown the bacillus in [a diluted-urine?] medium, and went through many high-volume serial dilutions to rule out the carry-over of any non-living factors. Was Carter too dismissive of Koch's demonstration of "sufficient" cause? Was the difference between the two studies merely quantitative -- a matter of dilution? Pasteur, additionally, showed absence of infection after injection of filtered blood. Davaine had already shown the effect of filtration per placenta [and Klebs by filter?]. Did Koch inject blood or tissue from non-infected animals and fail to get anthrax? If so, that would presumably have made his case even stronger. In any case, his inoculation experiments (together with his observations on bacteremia and spore formation) constituted good evidence that the bacteria were the cause of the disease. Certainly, and significantly, Koch's evidence was enough to convince influential leaders such as Cohn and Cohnheim. In the view of most Pasteur supporters, this 1877 paper by Pasteur was the definitive proof of bacterial causation of a mammalian disease. For relevant Loeffler comment see Bert 1877. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1877 | Pasteur | b. Reported that the anthrax bacillus was infective to guinea-pigs even when grown for many generations in the absence of blood. | Foster | Even Koch's work had not fully ruled out the possibility that previous transfers of anthrax were due to something in the inoculated blood other than the bacteria. Thus this work of Pasteur's was the final proof of causation. He compared it to the situation in trichinosis and scabies! See Holmes, p. 100. Work was done in collaboration with Joubert. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1877 | Pasteur | c. With Joubert, reported apparent bacterial antagonism. | Lechevalier | They noted that non-pathogenic bacteria appeared to counter the effects of pathogenic bacteria (Bacillus anthracis) when both were inoculated into animals. The potential for therapy was noted. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1877 | Powell | With Lealand, made water-immersion objective of 1/8" focus and numerical aperture of 1.26. | Bradbury | Such lenses matched the aperture of some of the early oil-immersion lenses of Abbe (1.20 - 1.35) and their observations may have been better corrected. See 1878. See Chapter 7, Table 3 (and perhaps elswhere) in Bradbury. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1877 | Schloesing | With Muntz, demonstrated that nitrate in soil was produced by "nitrifying" micro-organisms. | Doetsch | They did not isolate the organisms. See 1873, 1890. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1877 | Tyndall | Reported that bacteria must have a heat-resistant form. | Brock | Tyndall had read this paper to the Royal Society in the previous year (1876). The discovery that some bacteria have a heat-resistant form was of enormous importance to bacteriology. Tyndall was a strong supporter of the work of Koch. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1878 | Grassi | With Parona, described life cycle of Strongyloides stercoralis. | Grove | They demonstrated, experimentally, the direct cycle but not the indirect cycle. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1878 | Grassi | With Parona, reported that hookworm infections could be diagnosed in living patients by detection of eggs in fecal examination. | Norman | Battista Grassi and Corrado Parona. Apparently Ernesto Parona was also a co-worker, but not a co-author (see Grove). | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1878 | Israel | With Ponfick, described in humans what would be called actinomycosis, and isolated the agent. | Anon. | See 1877. See Harz; Cohn; Wolf; Bollinger. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1878 | Koch | Published evidence of bacterial causation of wound infections in various animals. | Brock | The small book in which his findings were published was an important advance in bacteriology. It contained drawings, but not photographs, of bacteria in host tissue. The role of bacteria in wound infection was demonstrated in mice and other animals (and was later extended to humans by Ogsten and others). Koch trapped wild animals, but also bred white mice for inoculation experiments. Apparently he was a pioneer [the pioneer?] in using white mice as a lab animal. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1878 | Lewis | Found trypanosomes in blood of rat. | Foster | The work, done in India, was influential because it was done in mammals, whereas previius reports of trypanosome had involved frogs. See Parasitology Today 9:348, 1993. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1878 | Lister | Reported detailed study of lactic fermentation in the souring of milk. | Doetsch | Pasteur's lactic fermentation of 1857 and 1858 was the fermentation of sugar to lactic acid, as occurred in grape juice. Lister, having already introduced antisepsis in surgery was now demonstrating that specific germs were cause, not result, of fermentation (as Pasteur had done). He discovered and named Bacterium lactis, later Streptococcus lactis. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1878 | Manson | Reported first insect vector of a human disease. | Grove | He published evidence linking elephantiasis and Filaria, now Wuchereria], and implicating the mosquito as an essential element in the life cycle; work done in 1876 - 1877. (Fedchenko had previously shown transmission of a pathogen by a crustacean.) Manson's work was prompted by Lewis's discovery of microfilariae (larvae) in human blood. Manson did not discover that the biting process was involved in transmission from mosquito to human. In the title of his 1878 paper, he refers to the mosquito as a "nurse" for the parasite. This may constitute the earliest direct (as distinct from epidemiological) evidence for disease transmission by an arthropod vector. See also 'Patrick Manson' by Patrick Manson-Bahr, Nelson and Sons, 1962. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1878 | Pasteur | a. Confirmed microorganisms as cause of flacherie in silkworms. | Carter | He inoculated silkworms with microorganisms that caused fermentation of mulberry leaves in the gut, and showed that the disease developed when, and only when, fermented leaves were present. According to Carter, this was Pasteur's most explicit demonstration of sufficient and necessary causation (although he did not use such terms until 1881). Note that Carter gives both 1877 and 1878 in this context, but his references cite the latter. Perhaps demonstrated at a congress in the earlier year and published in the later year. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1878 | Pasteur | b. Described an anaerobic organism associated with putrid material and causing septicemia in animals. | Anon. | Later named Clostridium septicum. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1878 | Perroncito | Described agent of fowl cholera (later Pasteurella multocida). | Anon. | Cited by Pasteur in 1880, along with reference to undated work by unidentified Moritz. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1878 | Pettenkofer | Appointed, while unsupportive of germ theory, to a chair of hygiene at Munich. | Anon. | This entry is included, not as an item of biography, but as an indication of the new status of hygiene (even among some who did not espouse the germ theory). Other such chairs soon followed. Some sources suggest Blackwell (Elizabeth) has priority for first chair. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1878 | Powell | With Lealand, improved on the achromatic condenser lenses that they had been making for some years. | Bradbury | They now introduced one with numerical aperture of 0.99. See 1850. They later produced apochromatic condenser lenses. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1878 | Sedillot | Proposed "microbe" as a general term for a microscopic organism. | Lechevalier | In 1878, in discussing the findings of Pasteur, the eminent French surgeon Charles Sédillot proposed the word "microbe." In the same year Pasteur and colleagues approved of the coinage as a "new and fortunate expression proposed by M. Sédillot." See Lechavalier and Solotorovsky p. 47 and 217. For further details see Billmann, F., A pioneer in medicine and surgery: Charles Sédillot (1804–1883). International Journal of Surgery 10: (9) 542–546, 2012 | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1878 | Stephenson | Published proposal for homogeneous immersion. | Ford | This meant filling the space between the front lens of the objective and the cover glass with a liquid having the same refractive index as the cover glass. See 1873, 1879. It is possible that he knew of the Tolles lens, according to Ford. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1878 | Toussaint | Extended Perroncito's work on the agent of fowl cholera (later Pasteurella septica); sent agent to Pasteur. | Geison | He grew it in a medium of neutralized urine (as Pasteur had grown the anthrax bacillus). Reported '78 and/or '79? According to Geison, in Dec. 1878 Toussaint sent to Pasteur the blood of a cock that had died of chicken cholera. This was the source material for Pasteur's work on the culture of the organism - from which arose his famous work on the immunogicity of attenuated bacteria. See 1879, 1880. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1879 | Abbe | Advocated use of homogeneous immersion system. | Bradbury | Acknowledged being prompted by 1878 paper of Stephenson, and having hitherto failed to follow-up his own independent ideas on the subject. Tolles had made immersion lens using thinned balam; did Abbe know about this? Abbe adopted cedar wood oil as the immersion fluid. In 1878-79, he made superior lenses (numerical aperture up to 1.35) that were intended for immersion use only, and thus did not need a correction collar to allow for cover-glass thickness. They provided a high standard of optics and convenience, and played an important role in making possible the rapid rise of microbiology and the germ theory of disease. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1879 | Afanasiev | Suggested that malaria is caused by black pigment seen in the tissues of victims, perhaps of protozoal origin. | Bruce-Chwatt | See earlier observation of Meckel. Bruce-Chwatt and de Zulueta (Oxford Univ. Press, 1980) cite Zasuhin 1951, to effect that Afanasiev suspected that pigment came from a parasitic protozoon. Garrison refers in another context to M. Afanassyeff. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1879 | Anon. | Clarified "sepsis" and "pyaemia." | Bullock | The clarification appeared in the findings of a committee of the Pathological Society of London, which concluded that "septicaemia" covered both chemical and infective concepts. and that "pyaemia" was also used confusingly. Proposed distinguishing between (1) septic intoxication --- chemical; (2) septic infection --- due to some agent but not making clear whether they meant an organism or a non-organized ferment; (3) pyaemia --- septic infection with metastases; (4) thrombo-embolism. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1879 | Anon. | Reported that most physicians had given up belief in Spontaneous Generation even before Pasteur's experiments. | Carter | See also Geison book on Pasteur. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1879 | Burrill | Reported further evidence of microbial nature of disease in plants. | Doetsch | In 1877 (q.v.) he had described the agents of blight in fruit trees as parasitic fungi, but he now called them bacteria (then considered to be fungi in the broad sense). He stated his conviction that they are causative of fire blight in pears, but acknowledged his lack of proof. Burrill noted that bacterial causation was "abundantly proved" in animals, and that the germ theory was "rapidly gaining support and credence." In contrast, bacterial causation of plant disease was, he said, an "entirely new" idea. See 1885. Lechevalier and Solotorovsky (page 166 of the 1974 Dover edition) make the point that Burrill was the first to indicate clearly that bacteria can cause disease in plants, and that specific bacteria cause specific diseases, but he did not culture the organisms in vitro. They argue that T. J. Burrill was to phytopathology what Davaine was to animal pathology; and that the role of E. F. Smith was comparable to that of Koch. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1879 | Galtier | Reported transmission of rabies from dogs to rabbits. | Geison | The prepatent period was roughly halved. This, with the cheapness of rabbits, facilitated experimental research on rabies. Galtier also suggested that the long prepatent period of human rabies might provide time for therapeutic intervention -- as proved to be the case. | Miscellany | Viruses | Details |
| 1879 | Klebs | Inoculated syphilis into apes and probably saw the spirochaete. | Norman | T.A.E. Klebs. Published 1878-79. Schaudinn and Hoffmann reported the spirochaete in 1905. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1879 | Koch | Published classic paper on the "etiology of traumatic infective diseases." | Brock | These were the septic complications associated with surgical or accidental skin cuts. Koch inoculated putrid materials into rabbits and mice, and used histological methods to demonstrate the existence of six different septic diseases, each caused by a different bacterium. Foster points out that until this time, only one disease, anthrax, had been convincingly shown to be caused by a bacterium. Koch correctly postulated that the comparable septic diseases in humans would be caused by similar bacteria. He made the important point that specific bacteria had constant characteristics. The impact of the paper was enhanced by its publication in English in 1880. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1879 | Law | Published Lung Plague, describing pleuropneumonia in cattle in U.S.A. | Stalheim | J. Law. This was the basis of reports to Congress that resulted in creation of the Bureau of Animal Industry; see 1884. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1879 | Leber | Reported a case of mycotic keratitis, and described the organism in the cornea as Aspergillus. | Anon. | According to Garrison, the agent of aspergillosis had been discovered by Bennet in 1842. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1879 | Manson | Described fungal agent of a tropical ringworm. | Ainsworth | Patrick Manson. Named it Tinea imbricata. It was later named Trichophyton concentricum. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1879 | Neisser | Extended Hansen's 1874 observations on germs in leprosy. | Foster | He gave "a clear account of the organism based on properly stained material" (Foster). Neisser had visited Hansen, who hoped to learn Koch and Weigert's staining methods from Neisser. On his return to Germany, Neisser applied the methods to 14 leprous materials supplied by Hansen, and found bacilli in all of them. Arguing that Hansen's demonstration of microbes in leprous material had not been convincing, and that Hansen was uncertain whether the microbes he had seen were the causative agent, Neisser claimed priority for discovery of the leprosy bacillus. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1879 | Neisser | Reported a micro-organism clearly associated with gonorrhea. | Foster | Causation was almost a certainty, but inoculation of animals or humans did not give consistent results. Neisser also saw the organism in eye secretions in cases of opthalmia neonatorum (leading to Crede's method of silver nitrate prophylaxis). | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1879 | Pasteur | Isolated pathogenic staphylococci and streptococci. | Foster | According to Foster, he did not "discover" the organisms. He isolated from boils what was probably Staphylococcus aureus, and believed it to be causative. In the same year he isolated it from osteomyelitis bone marrow, and believed it to be causative. He also showed that despite the presence of pus in boils, the blood of the patient was sterile. See 1881, 1882. Pasteur also observed in childbed fever, an organism that was probably the bacterium later named Streptococcus pyogenes; but the significance was clouded by the presence of multiple species. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1880 | Abbe | Designed binocular microscope. | Bradbury | Not successful because of very unequal light intensities in the two tubes (the image appearing two and a half times brighter in one eyepeice than in the other) and because of abberation caused by the unequal distance traveled by light in the two tubes. See 1854, 1860, 1865. Successful binocular microscopes were not developed until well into the 20th Century. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1880 | Anon. | Oil-immersion objectives took over from water-immersion objectives for the most demanding microscopical work. | Bradbury | Lenses with numerical aperture of 1.3 or more were being produced not only by Zeiss (under Abbe's direction) but also by such expert manufacturers as Tolles, and Powell and Lealand. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1880 | Cohnheim | Reported tuberculosis in rabbit eye following inoculation. | Garrison | Julius Cohnheim thus supported the observations of Villemin (see 1865) concerning inoculability of unseen agent. Garrison says work was done in 1877. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1880 | Eberth | a. Described germs in pneumonia. | Anon. | The germs were probably those later known as pneumococci. Not in Garrison; not in Lechevalier. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1880 | Eberth | b. With Gaffky, reported bacillus as causative organism of typhoid fever. | Garrison | Published in 1880 and 1881. See also 1884. Based on histological study of mesenteric lymph nodes and spleen of fatal human cases. Garrison notes that Klebs saw the typhoid bacillus before Eberth (but apparently reported it a year later). | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1880 | Evans | Described the trypanosome agent of surra in horses. | Foster | Griffith Evans, veterinary officer in India, found the parasite in blood of horses with surra, and concluded that it was the cause of that fatal disease. Transmitted it to dog and horse. Evans did not demonstrate horse-fly vector, but noted native tradition to that effect (see 1899 Rogers). | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1880 | Ewart | Said in lecture that leucocytes (and kidney) attacked inoculated anthrax bacilli in animals. | Anon. | See 1874, 1882. Not in Lechevalier. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1880 | Fowler | Reported a clinical correlation between tonsillitis and subsequent rheumatic fever. | Anon. | Half a century later a link between hemolytic streptococcal infections and later rheumatic fever was established serologically. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1880 | Koch | a. Reported role of specific bacteria in the etiology of particular dieeases (wound infections, sepsis and others). | Brock (1961) | English translation published in Brock, 1961. Koch could see little morphological differences in the bacteria, and could not produce pure cultures in vitro, but rightly concluded that each "traumatic" disease had its own etiological agent. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1880 | Koch | b. Discovered delayed hypersensitivity (cell-mediated immunity) in tuberculosis. | Bellanti | Lechevalier and Solotorovsky refer to Koch's paper of 1890 on tuberculin. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1880 | Laveran | Discovered agent (Plasmodium) of malaria. | Foster | Serving with the French army in Algeria, he observed the transparent protozoan parasites when examining blood from spleen and other tissues of cadavers and, most important, fresh blood from living patients. His attention had been drawn to these transparent bodies by the presence within them of the black malarial pigment that had long been seen in the tissues of malaria victims (see Meckel). Laveran saw that the pigment was not only free in blood, and not only present in leucocytes that had engulfed it, but also present in the transparent bodies. He saw spherical and crescentic [macrogamete] forms. On Nov. 6, 1880 he saw the motile filamentous [microgamete] forms. He named the parasite Oscillaria malariae. Malaria, as the name suggests, had long been considered a miasma. A renouned epidemiologist wrote: "... contagium vivum did not displace miasma generally until the middle eighties of the nineteenth century; the final victory was gained when Laveran found the malarial parasite and others demonstrated its transmission; the last stronghold of miasma had fallen" (Major Greenwood, in Science, Medicine and History [E. A. Underwood, ed.] Oxford Univ. Press, 1953, Vol. 2, p 501-507). | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1880 | Manson | Published further evidence of the mosquito as vector of filariasis. | Grove | See initial report of 1878. The second report (this entry) is sometimes cited as 1879, perhaps because the title states that it covers work up to September 30, 1897. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1880 | Pasteur | a. Reported immunization by attenuation of a bacterium -- the agent of fowl cholera. | Geison | Original French text and English translation given by Brock 1961. Pasteur reported that old cultures of the fowl cholera agent (now Pasteurella septica) lost virulence but induced protective immunity in chickens. The discovery became legendary: said to have been founded on a chance event (inadvertent aging) but supported by well-controlled experiment. It was the first vaccine to be intentionally based on the "attenuation" of a virulent micro-organism. Jenner's smallpox vaccine, introduced almost a century earlier, worked through a similar biological mechanism -- but that mechanism was unknown. The celebrated chance event (above) has been shown by A. Cadeddu to be mythical; see Geison. Discovery was founded on work by Roux in Pasteur's group. The vaccination was announced in Feb. '80 but the method (exposure to atmospheric oxygen) was not disclosed until October. English translation of the paper is given by Bibel, who also discusses the myth of earlier accounts. Silverstein refers to this work as the first controlled experiment in immunology. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1880 | Pasteur | b. Reported germs responsible for boils and puerperal fever. | Garrison | Now known as Staphylococcus and Streptococcus. Garrison says 1878 - 79 but cites paper of 1880. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1880 | Pasteur | c. Observed agent of lobar pneumonia. | Anon. | Also Sternberg and others, later. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1880 | Toussaint | a. Reported immunization of cattle against anthrax by filtered-heated blood. | Foster | He reported that cattle could be immunized against anthrax by [injection] of heated and filtered anthrax blood. This apparently preceded Pasteur's work on the subject, which began in the summer of 1880, and which may have been prompted by Toussaint's work. See 1881. Note from Geison: Toussaint's work was originally recorded in a sealed note of July 12. Disclosed a few weeks later, the note recorded that the blood had been defribinated and filtered through paper to remove germs; then heated at 55 C to kill any remaining germs. Initially Tooussaint regarded it as a "dead" vaccine, not appreciating spore formation in anthrax. See entry "b" for sequel. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1880 | Toussaint | b. Reported immunization against anthrax by chemically attenuated germs. | Geison | Between July 12 and August 8, Toussaint switched from filtered-heated anthrax blood (see entry "a") to blood that had been exposed to carbolic acid. He said that the use of antiseptics for attenuation had been inspired by Davaine's work (though Tousaint's purpose was prophylaxis while Davaine was aiming at therapy). | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1881 | Aufrecht | Probably saw tuberculosis bacillus. | Garrison | Not found in index of Garrison (4th edition). Possibly this reflects a rare (but not unprecedented; see Plett p. 373) case of discrepancy between text and index in Garrison. Not in Lechevalier. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1881 | Bechamp | Started publishing concept of microzymas. | Anon. | These were subcellular granules, that, when vitiated, cause disease. Claims were later made that he contributed significantly to the germ theory, but they have been widely rejected. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1881 | Braun | Infected dogs with Diphyllobothrium by feeding plerocercoid larvae from fish. | Anon. | Grove gives 1882 for this work. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1881 | Ehrlich | Reported the utility of the basic dye, methylene blue, for staining acid-fast bacteria. | Anon. | Acid-fast refers to retention of dye (carbolfuchsin) when an acid solution is used to de-stain. See also Ehrlich 1882 re aniline water and methyl violet. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1881 | Finlay | Presented paper on his hypothesis that Yellow Fever is transmitted by mosquitoes. | Anon. | Confirmed by Reed and colleagues in 1900. | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1881 | Galtier | a. Reported rabies transmission from dogs to guinea-pigs. | Foster | Foster suggests that Galtier's transmission from dog to rabbit (by inoculation of rabid-dog saliva)was done in 1879 and reported two years later. Geison says reported in the earlier year. | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1881 | Galtier | b. Reported immunization of sheep vs. rabies by injection of saliva of rabid dogs. | Geison | The saliva was injected intravenously. The discovery, the first known experimental immunization against rabies, was later confirmed by Roux. This was Galtier's last original contribution to rabies research. It was known to Pasteur, who was just then beginning his work on rabies. | Immunology | Viruses | Details |
| 1881 | Koch | a. Published landmark paper on bacteriological methods, including solid medium for pure culture. | Brock (1961) | English translation in Brock, 1961. While not the first to use solid medium for isolating pure cultures, Koch made the technique more useful by combining nutrient broth and gelatin, making a medium that (unlike sliced potato) would support a great variety of bacteria, while at the same time providing the solidity needed for picking out discrete colonies. Koch also made a notable demonstration at the Intl. Med. Cong. in London. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1881 | Koch | b. With Gaffky and Loeffler: reported data that served as basis for successful autoclave procedures. | Brock | Reliable methods of sterilization were central to the success of the Germ Theory. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1881 | Loeffler | Published formula for "nutrient broth." | Anon. | Intended to simulate inflammatory exudates ("meat extract peptone" by Collard). Used in Koch's solid media. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1881 | Ogston | Reported cluster-forming germ as agent of septic abscess. | Garrison | Used passage in eggs and animal infection to build strong case for causation. Named the organism in the following year; see 1882. This work was done prior to the introduction of solid media. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1881 | Pasteur | a. Reported immunization against anthrax by attenuated bacteria. | Geison | In February Pasteur announced his anthrax vaccine. The public demonstration was held in June; see other entry for same year. See English translation in Brock 1961. Pasteur linked his anthrax vaccine to his earlier fowl cholera vaccine, implying that both were based on attenuation by aging in air (exposure to atmospheric oxygen). For anthrax, he found it necessary to use spore-free cultures, obtainable by culture at 42-43 C. Geison reviews this situation in depth; concludes that this was not the vaccine actually used for public demonstration. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1881 | Pasteur | b. Carried out his famous public demonstration of anthrax vaccination. | Foster | At Pouilly-le-Fort, Melun, France, in June 1881. This work, with the fowl cholera vaccination success, was reported at a Congress in London in August 1881. Foster regarded this work on attenuated vaccines as "the greatest single discovery in the history of medicine, comparable with, if not more important than, Lister's discovery of the principle of antisepsis in surgery." Geison analyses the event in detail, and discusses the disingenous nature of some of Pasteur's behavior concerning the events at Melun. He concludes that the vaccine was composed of bacteria attenuated by potassium-bichromate, not atmospheric oxygen. See entry for February (same year). | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1881 | Pasteur | c. Published reports on a germ that was probably the diplococcus of pneumonia. | Sternberg | It had come from saliva of a case of rabies and its significance was not understood. The work began at the end of 1880. See Sternberg. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1881 | Pasteur | d. Reported transmission of rabies by intracranial inoculation of brain tissue. | Geison | This was his first paper on rabies, apart from a false-start note in the previous year. The advance was made by his colleague Roux, and involved drilling a hole in the skull of recipient dogs and transferring brain material from rabid dogs onto the brain of recipient dogs. This gave more reliable infections and a shorter prepatent period. Note from another source: Pasteur extended work of Galtier by transmitting rabies from dogs to rabbits not only by means of saliva but also by spinal cord. | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1881 | Sternberg | Published studies on a germ from human saliva that caused septicemia in rabbits. | Anon. | It was probably the pneumococcus, but its significance was not appreciated. Published 3 months before Pasteur. (q.v.). | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1881 | Tappeiner | Transmitted tuberculosis from human to dog by inhalation. | Foster | Foster refers to anonymous report in Lancet, 1881. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1881 | Warington | Confirmed nitrification by soil bacteria. | Doetsch | Also showed that more than one type must be involved, but failed to isolate them. See 1890. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1882 | Baumgarten | Reported discovery of a bacillus in unstained tuberculosis tissue. | Garrison | Paul von Baumgarten was a German physician. Ackernnecht (1968) says he discovered the bacillus "simultaneously" with Koch. According to Brock, he reported his observations a few days earlier (March 18) than Koch. He did not make pure cultures or carry out animal experiments. His work was recorded in print (abstract of meeting?) in the same year. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1882 | Braun | Infected humans with Diphyllobothrium by feeding them plerocercoid larvae from fish. | Grove | See 1881. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1882 | Ehrlich | Reported an improved method for staining the tubercle bacillus (and other acid-fact bacteria). | Brock | As a method for examining sputum, it signaled the start of a new era in clinical diagnosis. It relied on aniline water and methyl violet as the primary stain, followed by the use of acid to de-stain everything except the acid-fact bacilli. Because of later modifications it ceased to be known as Ehrlich's method, becoming known as the Ziehl-Nielsen method; see 1882, 1883. Brock gives an extensive quotation from Loeffler concerning this development, in which Loeffler notes that Ehrlich used aniline water instead of the ammonia that Koch had used, and fuchsin instead of methylene blue. Brock 1961 gives English translation of Ehrlich's article. Brock (1999) says Ehrlich started work on improving Koch's method for staining the tubercle bacillus on the evening of the very day of Koch's famous announcement of his discovery of the bacterium. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1882 | Friedlander | Reported diplococci (pneumococci) in large numbers in lung sections taken at autopsy in cases of pneumonia. | Anon. | Carl Friedlander (a with umlaut). In further work in the following years, his results were clouded by confusion between the diplococcus and a bacillus that was very short and occurred in pairs (later named Klebsiella pneumoniae). Garrison gives 1883. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1882 | Hesse | Introduced agar as solidifying agent for culture of bacteria. | Brock | Walther Hesse, acting on the suggestion of his wife and assistant Fannie Hesse, found that agar was superior to gelatin as the basis of solid media in bacteriolgical culture. Not clear whether initial observation was in late 1881 or early 1882, but happened while W. Hesse was a student in Koch's lab. Not published by either Hesse; see entry for Koch, 1882. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1882 | Koch | a. Reported discovery of the tuberculosis bacillus. | Lechevalier | Notes from various sources: Key factors in Koch's success were the use of Abbe's contributions to microscopy and the staining (methylene blue) technique developed by Ehrlich. More rigorous than earlier anthrax work. Often considered first real proof of a specific human disease being caused by a specific bacterium. (Publication of "postulates" came later, in 1884.) Reported as a lecture-demonstration (in March, at Berlin Physiol. Soc. rather than Berlin Med. Soc. because of Virchow's dominance and lack of sympathy for the young germ-theory advocates; and as a publication (in April). The lecture, published only three weeks after it was given, became a famous success. According to Loeffler's account (quoted by Brock) Koch counterstained his preparations with vesuvin (Bismark Brown) for purposes of photography. When histological sections of diseased tissue were photographed under blue light, the brown-stained tissue absorbed the light and appeared dark on the photographic negative. The blue-stained bacilli appeared bright and transparent on the negative. Koch thus succeeded in enhancing contrast in photographs; but was surprised to find that when the stained sections were observed directly in the microscope, the bacilli were still blue, despite the counterstain. Brock records that the illustrations (drawings, not photographs) in Koch's publication were chromolithographs, in which the tissues were colored brown and the bacilli blue -- but apparently this refers to Koch's final paper on the etiology of TB, published in 1884. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1882 | Koch | b. Reported, as an incidental remark, the value of agar in bacteriological media. | Brock | He had adopted its use on the recommendation of his former student W. Hesse (q.v.) who had found it greatly superior to the gelatin then being used for making solid media. Hesse, in turn, had tried agar at the suggestion of his wife, Fannie Hesse, -- whose appreciation of its potential value stemmed from her experience in both her kitchen and her husband's laboratory. There was no separate publication on this extremely important discovery. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1882 | Koch | c. Used heat to get methylene blue into waxy envelope of tubercle bacilli so as to stain them. | Anon. | See Weigert; see Erhlich. Brock (1999) gives information on Koch's use of methylene blue but does not seem to mention heating. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1882 | Leuckart | Reported Fasciola in snail intermediate host, Lymnaea truncatula. | Foster | Discovered independently by A. P. Thomas; see Thomas, 1882. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1882 | Loeffler | With Schultz, isolated agent of glanders (later named Actinobacillus). | Lechevalier | Work done in Koch's laboratory. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1882 | Metchnikoff | Reported the phenomenon of phagocytosis. | Silverstein | Having planted a rose thorn in a jellyfish larva, he saw ameboid cells gathering around it. This was the beginning of studies on cellular immunity as distinct from humoral immunity. (See 1874, 1890.) Foster says early 1883. Silverstien gives year as 1884 for "phagocytic theory of immunity" -- presumably because of his publication in that year of the role of phagocytes in anthrax. Brock credits Koch's 1890 paper on tuberculin as the first on cellular immunity, because the tuberculin reaction exemplified what came to be called delayed type hypersensitivity. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1882 | Ogston | Introduced name Staphylococcus for germ found in clusters, like bunches of grapes. | Brock | He had described the germ in the previous year; see 1881. See also Koch 1880 [English version of 1879 paper.] Ogston apparently reported this announcement in 1883. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1882 | Pasteur | a. Reported transmission of rabies by intravenous, rather than intracranial, inoculation. | Geison | This resulted in "paralytic" rather than "furious" rabies. | Miscellany | Viruses | Details |
| 1882 | Pasteur | b. Reported that some dogs could survive rabies and become immune to subsequent challenge. | Geison | b. This suggested, especially by analogy with smallpox, that immunization in humans might be feasible. | Immunology | Viruses | Details |
| 1882 | Pasteur | c. With Thuillier, reported agent of swine erysipelas. | Bullock | Agent was later named Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae. The disease is not to be confused with erysipelas in humans.. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1882 | Talamon | Reported at a meeting, the presence of diplococci in the lungs of pneumonia cases. | Foster | Also induced lobar pneumonia in rabbits by inoculation of these germs. Worked independently of Friedlander. Perhaps year was 1883 (not clear from Foster). | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1882 | Thomas | Reported Fasciola in snail intermediate host (Lymnaea truncatula). | Foster | In this classic work, A. P. Thomas (a young and inexperienced worker) was scooped by the eminent Leuckart, whose paper appeared only 10 days before that of Thomas. Both workers were acting on the basis of various observations by other workers suggesting the likelihood of a molluscan intermediate host. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1882 | Thuiller | Demonstrated to German observers the effectiveness of Pasture's anthrax vaccine. | Brock | The demonstration was done in Germany, and stemmed from the antagonism between Pasteur and Koch. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1882 | Ziehl | Used phenol (instead of Ehrlich's aniline water) with methyl violet for staining tubercle bacilli. | Brock | See 1883. This was the first component of the classic Ziehl-Neelsen stain. Ehrlich's aniline had previously replaced Koch's ammonia as an alkali (alkalinity being necessary for the successful staining of bacteria with methylene blue). | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1883 | Fehleisen | Reported the causative agent of erysipelas, a chain-forming coccus. | Foster | His work included pure culture, animal (rabbit) infection, experimental human infection (allowable because of alleged anti-tumor effect of the infection) and demonstration of immunity. He was peripherally associated with Koch. This was the first demonstration of a specific germ as cause of a surgical infection. The germ was later called Streptococcus pyogenes, Group A. According to Waller, Fehleisen, as a surgeon, had the motivation to investigate eryisipelas, and the live and dead patients to provide source material for bacteriological isolation. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1883 | Garre | Proved infectivity of Staphylococcus pyogenes for humans. | Foster | He rubbed a culture on his skin and caused a lesion (carbuncle). See 1882. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1883 | Klebs | Reported bacilli in the false membrane of diphtheria. | Anon. | He argued that they were causative (abandoning earlier claim for a coccus agent, see 1873). See 1884. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1883 | Koch | Discovered and cultured agent of cholera; confirmed and reported in the following year. | Brock | For details of follow-up, see 1884 Koch. See also 1854 Hassall and 1854 Pacini. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1883 | Koch | Observed ameboid parasites in sections of intestinal ulcer and hepatic abscess. | Foster | Work done in Egypt during Koch's hunt for the cholera agent, and for that reason not further pursued. Nevertheless these observations prompted the work of Kartulis on amebic dysentery. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1883 | Loeffler | Published firstl statement of Koch's Postulates, as guide to the establishment of disease causation by a mibroorganism. | Brock | Koch published a similar statement in 1890. Loeffler was one of Koch's associates. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1883 | Neelsen | Modified Ziehl's method of staining tubercle bacilli. | Brock | Nielsen introduced the use of basic fuchsin, with methylene blue as a counterstain, creating the famed Ziehl-Nielsen stain. See 1882. Ehrlich's method was also modified by Rindfleisch (Foster). | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1883 | Pasteur | a. With Thuillier, reported that passage of swine-fever microbe through rabbits decreased its virulence for swine. | Bullock | Geison notes that attenuation was tantamount to production of a vaccine. Pasteur had already shown that serial passage results in decrease or increase in virulence, depending on the host species used for passage. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1883 | Thuillier | Died of cholera in Egypt while trying to discover its cause. | Lechevalier | He was a member of the team organized by Pasteur, headed by Roux, funded by the French Gov't, that took advantage of the 1883 outbreak in Egypt to study cholera etiology. Koch's German team did likewise. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1883 | Wakker | Reported the bacterial causation of Yellow Disease in hyacinths. | Lechevalier | J. H. Wakker. Showed that the agent, a yellow bacterium, could be transmitted by inoculation of the leaf. Impact limited because of publication in Dutch. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Anon. | Campaign begun to control bovine pleuropneumonia in USA. | Stalheim | This was the first project of the Bureau of Animal Industry, created in that year by Congress as a branch of the US Dept. of Agriculture. The causative agent was not known, and the means used was the "stamping out" method that evolved from the control of rinderpest in Europe in the period 1774-1843 (quarantine of all animals, slaughter of affected animals and contact animals, disinfection of premises). This would imply recognition of contagion. Under Director D.E. Salmon, the BAI eradicated pleuropneumonia from US cattle by 1892. The causative agent is Mycoplasma sp., belonging to a group of very small bacteria that lack a cell-wall. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Anon. | Introduced first commercial autoclaves. | Anon. | They were designed by Chamberland and sold by Weisnegg company. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1884 | Chamberland | Described candle-shaped porcelain filter for ridding drinking water of microbes. | Lechevalier | It had been used in Pasteur's lab for removing microbes from culture medium. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Finkler | With Prior, reported the presence of comma shaped bacteria in feces of patients with diarrhea (not cholera). | Anon. | In response, Koch acknowledged that the cholera germ was not the only one of that shape, and demonstrated ways of distinguishing them in culture. Not in Lechevalier, or Garrison. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Fraenkel | Discovered agent of pneumonia. | Garrison | Similar or related discoveries made by Pasteur, Sernberg and Friedlander. Several bacterial species later shown to be involved, including species of the genera Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Hemophilus, Klebsiella. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Gaffky | Reported confirmation of Eberth's claim for bacillus as germ of typhoid. | Foster | Ebert had failed to find the organism in many cases (see 1880) but Gaffky clinched the matter. He still did not fulfill Koch's Postulates, but considered the evidence as good as in the cases of leprosy and relapsing fever. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Gerhardt | Transmitted malaria by injection. | Jaramillo | C. A. Gerhardt. From Jaramillo-Arango's 1950 book, Conquest of Malaria: Gerhardt "first achieved direct transmission of malaria by the subcutaneous injection into a healthy individual of blood taken from a patient suffering with tertian fever. Some of the experiments Gerhardt performed on himself. Although at the time unaware of Laveran's discovery, with this experiment, so to say, Gerhardt corroborated the parasitical nature of the disease." | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1884 | Gram | Reported improved stain for bacteria. | Brock (1961) | Application of Ehrlich's gentian violet (aniline dye) was followed by iodine-potassium-iodide and then decolorized with alcohol. Some types of bacteria were not decolorized and were therefore easy to see in tissue section. Such bacteria became known as Gram-positive. While initially a disappointment because it did not stain all bacteria, the method later became an important method for differentiating bacterial types. English translation in Brock 1961. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Kitasato | Reported confirmation of "Nicolaier's Bacillus" as causative agent of tetanus. | Foster | See Nikolaier, 1884. Foster refers to a paper of 1889 -- presumably not Kitasato's first on the subject. Check this. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Klein | May have swallowed cholera bacteria to test causation of disease. | Waller | Edward Klein. While not giving detaills, Waller indicates that Klein was the first to perform the sef-inoculation experiment made famous by Pettenkofer. The date of Klien's experiment is implied not stated, and Klein's precise purpose is not given. If 1884 is correct for Klein, then (according to Waller) his experiment and Pettenkofer's experiment would have been done in the same year. Magner, however, gives 1892 as the year of Pettenkofer's self-inoculation. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Koch | a. Published "Koch's Postulates" governing the proof of disease causation. | Brock | They had largely been anticipated by his mentor Henle. Brock believes they arose from his work on TB but had not guided that work. Even then, not set forth as formal scheme. See Loeffler, 1883. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1884 | Koch | b. Reported that chlorine, bromine and mercuric chloride were good disinfectants. | Anon. | He said they were better than the carbolic acid that had been used in surgery for more than a decade. This should be checked for exact date and authorship (Koch pupils?) because Foster refers to an English report. For germicide tests he used Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus anthracis. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Koch | c. Published 88-page work "The Etiology of Tuberculosis," expanding the demonstration of 1882. | Brock | See 1882. It was in this work that Koch published the two-color lithographs of tubercle bacilli in host tissues. He also stated more precisely his famous postulates. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Koch | d. Reported discovery of the causative agent of cholera (now Vibrio cholerae) and its growth in pure culture. | Brock | Koch's discovery of the cholera agent, a comma-shaped bacterium, is sometimes dated 1883. He did observe it in August-September 1883 while investigating an outbreak of cholera in Egypt. However, he and his team found the organism only in the intestines of cholera victims. They were unable to find it in blood or other tissues and, most important, they were unable to separate it from other intestinal bacteria before the outbreak subsided. They found the organism in cholera victims in India in December 1883 and January 1884 and succeeded in isolating it in pure culture. Koch described their findings in a report written in February 1884. Koch's isolation of the comma-shaped bacterium in pure culture did not prove that it was the cause of cholera, and the deficiency was accentuated by his failure to infect animals experimentally. His claim that the microbe caused cholera met with skepticism and even intemperate rejection, but the circumstantial evidence was strong enough to overcome opposition. His discovery had more impact in defeating miasmatism than his work on anthrax or TB (because the latter was not "dramatically epidemic," see McNeill p. 267). For highly relevant earlier reports see 1854 Hassall and 1854 Pacini. For a valuable historical summation and convenient list of Koch's reports, see N. Howard-Jones, Brit. Med. J. 288:379-381, 1984. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Landouzy | Recognized infectious nature of herpes zoster. | Lee | Louis Landouzy. Not clear from reference whether causation was actually demonstrated. | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1884 | Lichtheim | Reported experimental infection of rabbits with Mucor spp. | Anon. | The inoculation resulted in disseminated abscesses and death. See 1885, 1886. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1884 | Loeffler | a. Developed alkaline methylene blue as stain for bacteria. | Anon. | Based on work of Ehrlich (see 1881). Used throughout the following century. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Loeffler | b. Reported agent of diphtheria. | Garrison | He maintained that the bacillus that Klebs had seen in diphtheria in 1882 (1883) was indeed the cause of diphtheria, probably acting by production of toxin; see 1888. Although a disciple and subordinate of Koch at the time of the discovery, Loeffler was obliged to admit that his "proof" did not satisfy Koch's postulates. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Loeffler | c. Found agent of hog cholera. | Anon. | Not in Lechevallier. Is this what Garrison calls swine erysipelas? (Garrison says Loeffler found that agent in 1882-83, published 1885.) In late 20th century, hog cholera (swine fever) is attributed to an RNA virus. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Loeffler | d. Reported probable causation of scarlet fever by streptococcal germs. | Foster | This strengthened an existing belief. It was included in his report on diphtheria of 1884. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Metchnikoff | a. Reported phagocytosis in Daphnia. | Bibel | Saw that fungal cells were actively eaten by white cells, which were thus part of the (non-immune) defense system. Later developed concept of cellular immunity. Bibel gives English translation of the paper; notes introduction of term "phagocytes." See English translation in Brock 1961. | Immunology | Fungi | Details |
| 1884 | Metchnikoff | b. Reported phagocytosis in anthrax, and promoted cellular theory of immunity. | Silverstein | According to Silverstein, the debate between cellular and humoral concepts of immunity ebbed and flowed during the ensuing decade. Metchnikoff's theory followed more or less immediately on the heels of the early germ theory victories and became part of the new understaning of infectious disease. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Nicolaier | Reported causative agent (bacillus) of tetanus. | Garrison | See Kitasato, 1884. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Pasteur | a. Reported attenuation of rabies by passage in monkeys. | Geison | Also projected vaccination of dogs, and clinical prophylaxis in people folowing dog bite. | Immunology | Viruses | Details |
| 1884 | Pasteur | b. Vaccinated dogs against rabies. | Anon. | Used dried spinal cord of infected rabbits (attenuated virus). See 1885. Need to confirm this contribution; see other entry for this date, with Geison ref. Geison indicates that spinal cord was used in humans in the following year, without prior testing in animals for therapeutic efficacy; but had it been tried for prophylaxis? | Immunology | Viruses | Details |
| 1884 | Rosenbach | Isolated staphylococci in pure culture from wounds. | Foster | Orange colonies were named Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus (major pathogen) and white colonies were named S. pyrogenes albus (later shown to be mixture). See Steffee, Perspect. Cf Koch 1880. Also Strep. see Bullock. Foster says his albus was not the modern albus but probably another strain of the modern pyogenes. The work, done with the benefit of the new solid media, confirmed Ogsten's belief that streptococci and staphylococci were different germs, and clarified their role in various septic conditions. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1884 | Weeks | With Koch, discovered the bacillus of pink-eye, later named Haemophilus aegyptius. | Lee | J. E. Weeks. Agent is currently considered a variety (biogroup) of H. influenzae, and disease is known as 'acute bacterial conjunctivitis.' | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1885 | Arthur | Provided final proof of bacterial causation of plant disease. | Doetsch | Prior work was by Burrill and by Smith; see 1877, 1879. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1885 | Babes | With Cornil, reported antagonism between different species of bacteria, and speculated about therapeutic value. | Collard | One of several reports of microbial antagonism that pre-dated Fleming's penicillin work. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1885 | Bunn | Reported that cultures of Neisser's gonococcus cause gonorrhea. | Foster | More fully, von Bunn. He isolated Neisser's gonococcus in pure culture, and infected a woman experimentally. Knowledge of gonorrhea was advanced byhis bookon the subject. The agent was later named Neisseria gonorrhoeae. See 1879, 1891. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1885 | Cantini | Attempted to exploit bacterial antagonism in the treatment of human disease. | Lechevalier | He sprayed non-pathogenic bacteria into lungs of tuberculosis patient in attempt to treat by means of bacterial antagonism. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1885 | Carrion | By self-inoculation demonstrated infectiousnes of verruga peruana, and its link to Oroya Fever (bartonellosis). | Knobloch | Daniel Alcides Carrion inoculated himself (August 27, 1885) with blood from a patient with the dermal lesions known as verruga peruana, and quickly developed the acute systemic condition known as Oroya Fever, from which he died. Before dying, he recognized that his experiment had strongly supported the belef that Oroya Fever was often a precursor to verruga peruana. The agent was later identified as the rickettsial bacterium Bartonella bacilliformis. See J. knobloch, Trop. Med. Parasitol. 36: 183, 1985. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1885 | Escherich | Discovered the enteric bacterium later known as Escherichia coli. | Friedmann | Pediatrician Theodor Escherich discovered the bacterium in the feces oof infants with diarrhoea. He suspected, but failed to demonstrate, a causative role in diarrhoea. He named the bacterium Bacillus coli commune. The discoverery and later popularity of E. coli as a research tool owed much to the ease with which it can be cultured. Its existence as a multitude of strains made it particularly useful in the study of genetics. Eventually it acquired importance in bichemical research and in genetiics at the molecular level. Garrison gives the year as 1886. REFERENCE: Friedmann, H.C. Escherich and Escherichia. In: Advances in Applied Microbiology Vol. 60 (A. I Laskin et al ,eds.) Elsevier, 2006. PP 133-196. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1885 | Ferran | Attempted to control a cholera epidemic with an attenuated vaccine. | Foster | Haime Ferran y Clua. This appears to be the first attempt to extend to humans the use of a deliberately attenuated germ-culture, as introduced by Pasteur in the immunoprophylaxis of anthrax. Despite claims of success, Ferran's vaccine was not statistically validated and in the end was judged a failure. Ferran had tested his vaccine on himself and colleagues. According to Waller, Ferran refused to disclose essential information about his vaccine when approached by a foreign investigating team [a refusal that may or may not have been reasonable]. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1885 | Hansen | Advocated seclusion of lepers, in Norway. | Anon. | An Act of that year required isolation of lepers in homes or hospitals, with police enforcement. This was only one of a series of measures reflecting acceptance of the microbial causation of leprosy. It became a model for other countries. (Source is unpublished essay by P. F. Mange). | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1885 | Kitasato | Made first pure culture of tetanus bacillus. | Lechevalier | Details may be found in an extensive excerpt reprinted in Lechevalier. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1885 | Loeffler | With Frosch, found cause of foot-and-mouth disease. | Lechevalier | As with diphtheria, found weakness in Koch's postulates. In this case the problem was inability to demonstrate the organism (because it passed through filters!). Note date is approx. because not exact in L&S. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1885 | Mayer | Demonstrated the contagiousness of tobacco mosaic disease. | Lechevalier | Adolph Mayer, had been working on the disease since 1879. Attempts to filter out bacteria (putative agent) were unsuccessful but no attempt was made to show infectivity of filtrate. Did not suspect a smaller class of pathogen. See | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1885 | Millardet | Reported protective effect of Bordeaux Mixture (copper sulfate and lime) against mildew, Plasmopara viticola, of grapes. | Anon. | The mixture had originally been applied to prevent thievery. Application to the leaves prevented infection of the leaves. Millardet suggested use on potato and tomato plants because of similarity of the pathogens, and indeed Bordeaux Mixture became the pre-eminent plant fungicide and remained popular for many decades. | Miscellany | Fungi | Details |
| 1885 | Osler | Suggested role of bacteria in rheumatic fever. | Lee | Sir William Osler. Not clear from reference what role was assigned to bacteria. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1885 | Paltauf | Reported disseminated fungal infection (mucor mycosis) in a human. | Anon. | The word mucor, Latin for mould, does not designate a particular genus. It may, in this instance, have referred to Mucormyces, a name dating from 1885. See 1876. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1885 | Pasteur | a. Tested a "therapeutic" rabies vaccine in humans with clinical rabies, obtaining equivocal results that were never reported. | Geison | May 2: Pasteur and Roux injected attenuated rabies into an adult man with clinical rabies, in an attempt to halt progress of the disease. The man recovered, but the diagnosis and the long-term outcome were uncertain. June 22: Pasteur arranged for the administration of attenuated rabies to be injected into an 11-year-old girl with clinical rabies. The girl died. Pasteur did not disclose these trials. In both cases the vaccine was an emulsion of dried spinal cord from rabbits dead from experimental rabies. This method had received little meaningful therapeutic (post-bite) testing in animals. The hope inspired by the first case (before the diagnosis became suspect) may have encouraged the prepatent trial 6 July. | Immunology | Viruses | Details |
| 1885 | Pasteur | b. Conducted (and reported) trials of "therapeutic" rabies vaccine in humans during presumptive prepatent period of disease. | Geison | June 12: declined to use the vaccine on a man and his child because such use not considered justifiable on available evidence. July 6: used the vaccine in prepatent period in human for first time. The famous Joseph Meister case. Dried rabbit spinal cord; 13 injections (progressively "stronger") over 11 days. Injected by physician Grancher, in notable absence of physician Roux. No clinical disease ensued. Method (material and sequence) had received limited testing in dogs, but not in presumptive prepatent (post-bite) period. Oct. 20: the Jean-Baptiste Jupille case. Oct. 26: Both cases reported at meeting of Academy of Sciences. Jupille case then still in progress. | Immunology | Viruses | Details |
| 1885 | Power | With Klein, reported that an outbreak of scarlet fever was caused by milk-borne streptococci. | Foster | The disease (also called scarlatina) is currently attributed to an erythrogenic toxin produced by Group A Streptococcus. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1885 | Roux | With Yersin, first described antitoxins. | Bellanti | Produced by the agent of diphtheria. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1885 | Salmon | Isolated enteric pathogen from swine. | Norman | He named it Salmonella choleraesuis, because he considered it the agent of hog cholera (swine fever). This was later shown to be caused by a virus. The tribe Salmonelleae was named after Salmon but discovered by Theobald Smith, | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1886 | Abbe | Introduced apochromatic objectives. | Bradbury | By using new types of glass, he was able to eliminate the slight green fringe that was seen around objects viewed through achromatic lenses (corrected only for red and blue). This benefit was important only to those working near the limits of high-aperture lenses. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1886 | Bergmann | Introduced steam sterilization. | Anon. | It was more effective and more practicable (for towels, gowns, etc.) than boiling. Not in Lechevalier. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1886 | Buist | Reported that he had seen and measured viral elementary bodies in lymph taken from a cowpox inoculation ulcer. | Williams | George Brown Buist. Apparently the first observation of a virus in the modern sense; see 1868. The information was given in an oral presentation in 1886 and may have been published in 1887. | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1886 | Calandruccio | Infected himself with Trichuris (whipworm) by ingesting eggs. | Grove | The finding was reported by Grassi in the following year. Evidence of a direct lifecycle had previously been reported for domestic animals. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1886 | Escherich | Published monograph on micro-organisms of the normal intestine. | Garrison | Theodor Escherich made a major advance in understanding the non-pathogenic bacteria, especially in infants. He described Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacterium coli commune (called Bacillus coli by Garrison; later named Escherichia coli). According to Friedmann (see 1885 Escherich) Escherich in 1886 described Bacterium lactis aerogenes which was later named Enterobacter aerogenes and also reported a 'bent' bacterium that was probably Campylobacter jejuni. The latter had been reported informally by Escherich in 1884. Its lilnk to colitis and enteritis was reported by others many years later. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1886 | Fraenkel | Confirmed pneumococcus as cause of lobar pneumonia and as the salivary germ known to cause septicemia in rabbits. | Anon. | Reported by Pasteur and by Sternberg, see 1881. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1886 | Golgi | Described 2 species of the parasite (Plasmodium) that causes human malaria. | Bruce-Chwatt | The parasite, but not the mode of transmission, was already known. Described in detail: Plasmodium vivax and P. malariae. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1886 | Leichtenstern | Infected humans with hookworm by giving larvae orally. | Foster | Not in index of Foster's 1965 book, but appears on page 85 ! The oral route was subsequently confirmed by others, but is considered very much secondary to the cutaneous route (discovered 12 years later). | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1886 | Lindt | Extended the work of Lichtheim showing additional species of Mucor to be pathogenic to rabbits. | Anon. | Presumably refers to what was later called Mucormyces. See 1884. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1886 | Ross | Reported (per Manson) that early development of human malaria parasite occurred rapidly in stomach of mosquito. | Foster | Ronald Ross. Observations made in summer of 1895. Based on Manson's belief that changes seen in the crescent stage [gametocyte] in vitro normally ccurred in the mosquito. Ross found that they occurred even faster in the mosquito, suggesting that the mosquito stomach was the natural locus for early development of the crescent stage. Reported by Manson, Brit. Med. J., March 1896. See Ross 1897 and 1898. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1886 | Salmon | With Smith, reported successful immunization of pigeons against Salmonella by injecting them with heat-killed Salmonella. | Lechevalier | David E. Salmon and Theobald Smith. The bacteria used in the work had been isolated from swine. This appears to have been the first "dead" vaccine, and was of great importance in showing that attenuation was not the only means of making bacteria harmless while preserving their immunogenicity (the attenuation methods of Pasteur were not applicable to all bacterial infections). See 1896, 1897. Also important in the control of hog cholera! Check. Collard does not refer to pigeons. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1886 | Weichselbaum | Reported that pneumonia could be caused by more than one kind of germ. | Foster | He referred to pneumococcus and germ subsequently called Klebsiella. The latter was often called "Friedlander's bacillus" but this is confusing because Friedlander dealt with both organisms, see 1882. Note this item is dated arbitrarily, because Foster does not give date - but gives references (and Garrison gives only other contributions by Anton Weichselbaum). | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1887 | Arloing | With Cornevin Thomas, showed inoculability of blackleg in cattle. | Stalheim | S. Arloing. They also showed that the agent (now Clostridium feseri or C. chauvoei) differed from that of anthrax (and "charbon symptomatique" was thus not a form of charbon or anthrax). They showed that lesion material, if injected intravenously, did not cause disease but did induce immunity (leading to development of a bacterin, still the means of prevention in the 1990s). | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1887 | Bristowe | Published major medical textbook, fully accepting the germ theory. | Bynum | J. Bristowe. His Theory and Practice of Medicine reflected the recent scientific advances in chemistry, microscopy, cellular pathology and bacteriology. He recognized the reported bacterial etiology of diphtheria, cholera and tuberculosis, and predicted similar causation for other diseases. Bynum contrasts this book with Graves' Clinical Lectures of 1848, with its pre-germ-theory medicine, and its treatment of fever as a general disease category rather than the symptom that it became in the writings on Bristowe and later writers. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1887 | Bruce | Reported isolation of a micrococcus from cases of Malta Fever (undulant fever, brucellosis). | Garrison | He grew the agent in culture. It was later named Micrococcus melitensis, and later synonymized with Brucella abortus, see 1897. Lechevalier gives date of 1886 for the isolation. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1887 | Chantemesse | With Widal, published first differential media. | Collard | Used glucose and lactose peptone water to distinguish Escherichia coli from Salmonella typi. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1887 | Garre | Reported that a product of Pseudomonas inhibited growth of other bacteria. | Anon. | This is one of several pre-penicillin reports of inhibition of bacterial growth by the metabolites of other bacteria. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1887 | Hlava | Confirmed Entamoeba histolytica as cause of dysentery. | Imperato | Jaroslav Hlava. His publication, in Czech, gave rise to the spurious Doctor Uplavaci. In abstracting the report in German, a translator omitted the author's name. The Czech title words O Uplavaci, meaning On Dysentery, were widely cited in the literature as the author's name. The error was pointed out by Dobell in 1938; see Imperato, P.J., Bull. New York Acad. Med. 57: 175-187, 1981. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1887 | Kartulis | Reported amebae in pus from liver abscess, confirming their suspected role in pathogenesis. | Foster | Staphanos Kartulis worked on amebic dysentery for 20 years following the observations made by Koch on the disease in Egypt. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1887 | Loeffler | Reported immunity in guinea pigs that had survived experimental diphtheria infection. | Foster | He also showed the existence of related organisms (corynebacteria). | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1887 | Loeffler | Wrote more-or-less contemporaneous review of history of bacteriology up to 1878. | Howard | Friedrich Loeffler (alternatively spelled with an o-umlaut).Dexter H Howard published an English translation of the work in 2001: Lectures on the Development of the Field of Bacteriology, Rutledge Books, Danbury CT. (See reference section of Germ Theory Timeline.) Reviewed by K. Codell Carter in Bull. Hist Med circa 2006. Loeffler's book has a vast amount of detail, and the Howard translation provides ready access to treasure-house of information that has not previously been available in English. Carter, in his review, considered Loeffler's writings to favor German contributions over French, but states that his Lectures "cannot be ignored by anyone seeking to understand the development of nineteenth -century bacteriology or medicine." | Miscellany | N.A. | Details |
| 1887 | Petri | Described a dish particularly suited to Koch's new method of plating bacteria on solid media. | Norman | It became, and remains, the standard dish for this purpose. Until this time, medium was allowed to solidify on glass plates, and these were stored under bell jars to prevent contamination. Similar dishes were described by Cornil and Babes 1885, and Nicat and Rietsch 1885, but the dish described by Koch's assistant Petri overshadowed all others. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1887 | Weichelsbaum | Isolated a bacterium (coccus) form patients with meningitis. | Lee | Anton Weichelsbaum. Refernce does not comment on the isgnificance of contribution. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1887 | Weichselbaum | Reported novel type of bacterium in post-mortum material from the brains of cases of cerebrospinal meningitis. | Garrison | He named it "Diplococcus intracellular meningitis" and showed it to be lethal in animals. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1887 | Winogradsky | Reported the metabolism of sulfur by Beggiatoa and other "sulfur bacteria." | Anon. | An early paper by the great soil microbiologist. See 1870. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1888 | Abbe | Introduced superior achromatic condenser. | Bradbury | Much used by early bacteriologists, and became the standard system on the Continent. See 1850. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1888 | Anon. | Pasteur Institute was opened in Paris, reflecting triumph of Pasteur -- and the germ theory. | Geison | The event reflected the acclaim and the funding that greeted the work of Pasteur and Roux on rabies prevention; see 1885. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1888 | Babes | Reported a parasite in erythrocytes of cattle with disease (babesiosis). | Foster | Discovery made independently of Theobald Smith. Foster contends that the work of Babes "was of no significance in the development of our understanding of the disease." | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1888 | Beijerinck | Reported nitrogen-fixing bacteria in legumes. | Anon. | He noted that the nodules on the roots of leguminous plants were tumors caused by local bacterial infection; and that the bacteria fix atmospheric nitrogen and make ammonium salts for the host plants. Infected plants can thus grow in the absence of ammonium or other nitrogenous salts. Lechevalier gives 1890 as the year in which Winogradsky achieved the first isolation of bacteria that transform ammonia into to nitrite and then into nitrate. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1888 | Brieger | Isolated microbial toxins. | Garrison | Ludwig Brieger. Garrison refers to this as first isolation and naming of toxins (typhotoxine and tetanine); but see 1884. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1888 | Bruce | Reported experimental infection of monkey with Micrococcus (now Brucella abortus). | Anon. | He reported inoculation of monkey with the micrococcus he had isolated from Malta Fever (see 1887) with resultant death of the animal and re-isolation of the organism from spleen. Also called undulant fever. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1888 | Chantemmesse | Isolated bacillus of dysentery. | Lee | Andre Chantemmesse. Reference does not furnish further information. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1888 | Gaertner | Isolated and named Bacillus enteritidis (later Salmonella enteritidis) from an outbreak of gastro-enteritis. | Garrison | Garrison gives the date as 1889 -- year of publicaton? Gaertner (also Gartner with umlaut) isolated the germ both from a human case and from the unwholesome beef that had caused the outbreak. See 1898. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1888 | Gamaleia | Discovered agent of fibrinous pneumonia. | Garrison | Nicolaus Gamaleia. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1888 | Majima | Described disease of human liver associated with eggs later shown to be schistosome eggs. | Grove | Tokuho Majima wrote under the pen-name of Naganori. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1888 | Nocard | Reported that farcin de boeuf in cattle is caused by an anaerobic actinomycete. | Anon. | It was named Nocardia by Trevisan in 1889. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1888 | Nuttall | Reported that anthrax bacilli, if not too numerous, are killed by normal serum (from non-immune animals). | Lechevalier | This was not the first report of the bactericidal action of serum, but was a major and influential contribution to the concept of humoral immunity, which was now mounting in opposition to the concept of phagocytosis. Some critics were contending that leucocytes merely took up dead bacteria. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1888 | Pasteur | Proposed deliberate microbial dissemination for control of rabbit populations. | Anon. | In an article on the Australian rabbit plague, I. Anderson and R. Nowak write that in this year Pasteur "proposes controlling Australian rabbits with chicken cholera bacteria. His idea is rejected on the grounds that the bacterium is not sufficiently contagious to rabbits (and a risk to chickens). Pasteur is furious". New Scientist, Feb. 22, 1997, page 34. Does this give Pasteur priority in biological control?! | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1888 | Roux | With Yersin, reported that the Klebs-Loeffler bacillus of diphtheria produced a toxin. | Silverstein | As suspected by Loeffler. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1889 | Abbe | Produced (at Zeiss) an objective with the highest numerical aperture ever achieved: 1.63. | Bradbury | From this time on, the apochromatic objectives of the leading manufacturers gave resolution that reached the upper theoretical limit of the light microscope (0.25 micrometer). Powell and Lealand, for example, produced in 1892 several lenses with aperture of 1.5. Modern objectives have a somewhat smaller aperture. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1889 | Baillon | Gave name Malassezia furfur to fungal agent of pityriasis versicolor and separated it from ringworm. | Anon. | Much later the name became Pityrosporum furfur. See 1846, 1853. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1889 | Behring | Studied antiseptic iodoform. | Anon. | When he joined Koch's lab, in this year, Behring was interested in iodoform, the main antiseptic dressing then used in the German army. Did it protect by neutralizing toxin or killing germs? Ptomaines produced by septic bacteria were partially neutralized. This preceded his antitoxin work. Included here as an example of antiseptic. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1889 | Buchner | Confirmed Nuttall's report of the germicidal action of normal (non-immune) serum. | Garrison | Hans Buchner. It was Eduard Buchner who got the Nobel Prize for showing that intact yeast cells were not necessary for alcoholic fermentation. See 1888 re Nuttal. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1889 | Celli | With Marchiafava, described the agent of malignant tertian malaria, Plasmodium falciparum.. | Bruce-Chwatt | The mode of transmission was still unknown. Bruce-Chwatt gives the dates as 1889-90. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1889 | Charrin | With Roger, reported first evidence of specific antibacterial substance in serum of immune animals. | Anon. | Immune serum caused Pseudomonas pyocyanea to clump and fall to bottom of culture, whereas normal serum did not. See 1890. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1889 | Danilewski | Described morphology and distribution of malarial parasites of birds. | Bruce-Chwatt | The malarial parasites of birds were to be be of crucial importance in the later demonstration by Ross of the mosquito transmission of malarial parasites. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1889 | Ducrey | Reported agent of soft chancre (chancroid). | Ackerman | The agent is now Haemophilus ducreyi. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1889 | Grassi | With Rovelli, reported flea as intermediate host for Dipylidium caninum. | Grove | A common tapeworm of dogs and cats. The possibility of the flea as a vector had been considered, and rejected, by Sonsino in 1888. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1889 | Kilborne | Initiated trials in cattle to test cattlemen's belief in ticks as source of Texas Fever (babesiosis). | Malone | Work in 1889 confirmed link between ticks and disease. Theobald Smith acknowledged Kilborne's initiative, writing that in the summer of 1889, Kilborne "conceived the happy idea of testing this popular theory of the relation of ticks to the disease. This he did ..." (cited by Schwabe, C. W., Veterinary Medicine and Human Health, Williams & Wilkins, 1964). Work in 1890 - 1892, with important roles played by Smith and Curtice, resulted in classic paper announcing causative agent (protozoon) and confirming tick transmission. See 1893 for Malone reference, and more about the discovery. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1889 | Kitasato | Reported that tetanus is caused by Nicolaier's club-shaped, spore-forming bacillus. | Brock 1999 | Organism is currently called Clostridium tetani. See 1884, 85. He showed that it was an obligate anaerobe, and suspected that it released a toxin. The work was done in Koch's laboratory. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1889 | Kitasato | Reported utility of indole production in differentiating between bacterial species.. | Collard | Distinguished Escherichia coli from Salmonella typhi. See 1887. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1889 | Kitasato | While working in Koch's laboratory, discovered the susceptibility of the mouse to tetanus.. | Anon. | This provided others, and especially Behring in the same laboratory, with a much better model for immunological and anti-toxin work (less rabbit serum was needed for a mouse than for a guinea pig). Koch had already introduced the use of the white mouse in bacteriological research. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1889 | Loeffler | Isolated from sick laboratory mice the germ later known as Salmonella typhimurium. | Anon. | S. typhimurium is a cause of enteritis in ruminants, horses, pigs and various other animals. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1889 | Pfeiffer | Used cross-immunization of guinea pigs with two similar species of bacteria to show specificity of immune response. | Lechevalier | Arose from his work on cholera. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1889 | Smith | Observed intra-erythrocytic protozoan parasites in a case of Texas Cattle Fever. | Foster | Theobald Smith published his great work on this protozoan parasite in 1893 (q.v.). According to Foster (1965) he found the organism in 1889, the year he started work on the disease. See Parasitology Today 9:348, 1993. See 1888 Babes. See 1892 Smith. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1889 | Winogradski | Reported that some bacteria (autotrophs) can grow in medium containing only carbon dioxide and inorganic salts. | Lechevalier | Because of this work (done in Zurich), Pasteur invited Winogradski to join the Pasteur Institute. Having been away from Russia for 5 years, Winogradski declined the offer and returned to his native land. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1890 | Abbe | Reported technique for the use of fluorite in microscope lenses. | Bradbury | The optical properties of this natural crystalline material made it particularly useful in the construction of apochromatic objectives. Abbe had been developing this approach since 1881. Fluorite is commonly used to make objectives that are not quite apochromatic, but cheaper than apochromatic models. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1890 | Anon. | Initiated a program to eradicate hydatidosis from Iceland. | Anon. | The veterinary profession attempted to prevent infection in dogs, and eliminate the canine reservoir, and thereby prevent hydatid disease in people. Almost completely eliminated by 1957. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1890 | Behring | a. Reported, with Kitasato, first evidence that infection (tetanus) resulted in the presence in serum of substances capable of neutralizing foreign materials. | Brock (1961) | Brock 1961 calls it the beginning of the science of serology. Discussed tetanus and diphtheria (one week later, Behring published, alone, on diphtheria; see next entry). Behring called the substances antibodies, and realized that this was a new defense mechanism (humoral) as distinct from the prevailing phagocytosis mechanism. Thus the first known antibodies were antitoxins. According to Silverstein, the discovery of antibody caused a decline in interest in cellular immunity that lasted almost 60 years. Bibel gives an English translation of the paper; and notes that it was unique in two ways: (1) showed resistance to microbial disease via serum (not just bactericidal action in vitro) and (2) showed passive immunity (transfer from actively immunized donor). Bibel says authors knew antibody as antitoxic property, not substance; see Tizzoni & Cattani 1891. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1890 | Behring | b. Reported evidence that diphtheria (like tetanus) induces protective antibodies (antitoxin) in lab animals. | Brock (1961) | The previous paper postulated that diphtheria, like tetanus, produces antitoxin; this paper provides experimental support. Within 10 years of this discovery, diphtheria antitoxin was being produced commercially and used for treatment of children (and later for prevention). | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1890 | Gasparini | Reported antagonism between various actinomycetes. | Lechevalier | One of several pre-penicillin reports of what would become known as antibiotic effects. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1890 | Halsted | Introduced rubber gloves in surgical operations, though not to prevent transmission of germs. | Garrison | It was done initially to protect hands from the effects of carbolic acid, not to protect the patient from infection. Cotton gloves had been used in surgery by Mikulicz to exclude germs (according to Richardson), but had not come iinto general use. See 1896 | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1890 | Koch | Announced, at a congress, his discovery of a substance capable of stopping the progress of tuberculosis in animals. | Brock | "Koch's lymph," later called tuberculin, was a bacterial extract. It soon proved ineffective as a treatment, but of great importance in diagnosis and in developing the concept of bacterial allergy (which Koch published in the following year). There is evidence that Koch succumbed to pressure to make his announcement at this time despite his awarenesss that it lacked adequate scientific support. See also entry on this topic for 1991 Koch. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1890 | Loeffler | Developed method of staining bacterial flagella. | Lechevalier | Lechevalier and Solotorovsky record the event but do not say what stain was used. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1890 | Maffucci | Isolated avian tubercle bacillus Bacillus gallinaceous. | Lee | Angelo Maffucci, known for his work on human tuberculosis. Listing by Lee does not indicate whether whether Maffucci showed causation. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1890 | Radam | Self-published a book on cure of diseases by killing microbes (undisclosed method). | Campbell | William Radam: "Microbes and the Microbe Killer," published by Radam himself, New York, pp. 369. A self-serving work, because Radam sold his remedy "Microbe Killer" (in large ceramic flagons, one of which, like the book itself, is in the possession of Dr. Allen Laskin). The book makes extravagant claims, based on anecdotal "evidence" and, on cursory examination, gives no indication of the ingredients. It is thoroughly nonscientific, yet is of interest because it rests entirely on the concept of curing microbial diseases by killing the microbes [see Ehrlich]. It has many photographs, which Radam claims to be the first published photos of microbes [see Koch] and which includes a very good high-magification photo of a Trichinella larva in situ. This may well be the first published photo of that parasite. See Campbell, W. C. "Remembrance of Images Past" in Parasite: 8, S114-115, 2001. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1890 | Smith | Introduced apparatus for visual observation of gas production during fermentation. | Collard | Theobald Smith. He used it to distinguish between types of enterobacteria. See 1898. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1890 | Winogradsky | Isolated nitrifying bacteria from soil, confirming and extending work of others in a very significant way. | Doetsch | Others had failed to isolate such organisms because they assumed, erroneously, that they would thrive in the sort of highly organic media being used for the culture of animal pathogens. See 1877, 1881, 1889. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1891 | Cerqueira | Described tinea nigra as a keratomycosis, thus noting its fungal etiology. | Rippon | The work was not published until the 20th. Century. The agent, later called Cladosporium werneckii, invades the stratum corneum of the skin, and thus barely qualifies as an infection. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1891 | Councilman | With Lafleur, described the detailed pathogenesis of dysentery and liver abscess caused by Entamoeba histolytica. | Foster | Introduced the term 'amebic dysentery', and suggested the existenc of pathogenic and nonpathogenic species of the parasite. See also Loesch. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1891 | Ehrlich | a. Reported methylene blue effective against malaria in humans. | Lechevalier | Based on greater intensity of staining of parasites as compared to blood cells in vitro. The dye was given to two patients and allegedly gave rapid cure. (This may be the first test of a systemic synthetic drug in a human infectious disease, preceding, the first trials of arsenicals against trypanosome infections.) | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1891 | Ehrlich | b. Distinguished between active and passive immunization. | Anon. | Using a chemical poison, rather than a germ, he introduced protection against its toxicity and transferred that protection to other animals by transfer of serum. Behring and Kitasato had passively transferred immunity in diphtheria and tetanus, but had not made a distinction between the two major types of immunity. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1891 | Ehrlich | c. Showed that even plant poisons elicit antitoxins. | Anon. | This supported Behring's "antitoxin" (antibody) concept. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1891 | Geissler | With Wernicke, allegedly treated a diphtheria patient with antiserum (successfully). | Collard | Schadewaldt, Dict. Sci. Biog., doubts truth of this legend on ground of insufficient supply of serum. Collard gives name as Geisslin. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1891 | Klemperer | Reported the production of a pneumococcal antiserum in rabbits and its trial in six humans. | Anon. | They concluded that it had some therapeutic value. See 1896. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1891 | Koch | Publlished hitherto secret compositon of tuberculin. | Brock | Reports in the previous year suggested a prophylactic and curative role for the secret substance he later called tuberculin. Following much controvery and criticism, Koch now revealed that it was glycerin extract of tubercle bacilli . Glycerin had been used in the culture medium, and remained after removal of bacterial cells and water. The value of tubercullin in the immunodiagnosis of tuberculosis (and lack of value in therapy) soon became evident. Brock and others believed that Koch had no interest in making money from the discovery of tuberculin, but documents not available to early biographers have shown that he was indeed eager to profit financially from the discovery; see James Strick's Foreword to the 1999 edition of Brock's book "Robert Koch." | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1891 | Lister | Arranged a symposium on bacterial immunity. | Foster | Joseph Lister arranged the symposium as part of the Congress of Hygiene in London. The occasion is significant historically because it helps to pinpoint the time at which experts acknowledged that the cellular and the new humoral mechanisms of immunity could both be important in defense against microbial disease. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1891 | Tizzoni | With Cattani, described tetanus antitoxin as a substance, and introduced term antitossina (= antitoxin). | Bibel | Discovered the salt-precipitated globulin. Behring and Kitasato reported antitoxin of diphtheria as a property (1890). Some [Chase ?] give the Koch group credit for coining "antitoxin." Independent coinage seems quite plausable. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1891 | Wertheim | Conclusively confirmed Neisser's gonococcus as agent of gonorrhea, and infected five men experimentally. | Foster | The agent was later named Neisseria gonorrhoeae. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1891 | Wolff | With Isreal, grew fungus of actinomycosis. | Bullock | Then a "fungus;" in 20th century a "bacterium." See entries for Actinomyces. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1892 | Anon. | Diphtheria antitoxin was first produced on a commercial scale (in Germany). | Anon. | In England production began in 1895. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1892 | Anon. | Eradicated bovine pleuropneumonia in U.S.A. | Malone | By means of isolation-and-slaughter? The disease had hindered export of beef to Europe. Agent is currently named Mycoplasma. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1892 | Behring | Reported, with Wernicke, the ability of antitoxin to treat diphtheria in lab animals. | Brock | See also Behring's contributions in 1890 and 1893. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1892 | Doderlein | Described Doderlein bacillus in vaginal secretions in cases of puerperal fever. | Lee | Albert Doderlein (with umlaut). Garrison does not mention a description of a microbe. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1892 | Flick | Started Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis. | Chowder | Source is an article on TB, by Chowder (details not on hand). The Society was later named the National Association for the study and Prevention of Tuberculosis. Said to be first (American?) "massive public-health movement," the model for the later campaigns against polio, cancer and AIDS. Chowder article on TB. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1892 | Iwanowski | Reported that sap of plant with tobacco mosaic disease was infective even after bacteriological filtration. | Lechevalier | Suspected faulty filter or disease caused by soluble toxin (a reasonable conclusion because the diphtheria toxin had already been reported, see 1888). From a translation of part of his report (Lechevalier) it would seem that he did not suspect a class of smaller pathogens. Nevertheless, his illustrations depict "inclusion bodies" (aggregates of virions) and crystals of the virus. | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1892 | Koch | Demonstrated the value of water filtration in the control of cholera. | Brock | The cholera outbreak in Hamburg in 1892 provided the context and motive for Koch and his students to show the efficacy of sand fitration in removing bacteria from water. (It was later determined that chlorination was even more effective in sanitizing urban water supplies.) | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1892 | Pettenkofer | Swallowed cholera bacteria in attempt to show that it was not a sufficient cause of disease. | Magner | Max von Pettenkofer, pioneer in public health. In swallowing a culture of the bacteria (vibrios reported by Koch as the agent of cholera) Pettenkofer was not denying that the microbes played a role in the causation of cholera. Rather, he was trying to demonstrate that, in the absence of other (soil-related) factors, the bacteria would not cause the disease. Pettenkofer did not acquire cholera, and concluded that his position was thereby supported. Similar self-inoculations were later made by others, but were abandoned when their danger became apparent. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1892 | Pfeiffer | Isolated Hemophilus influenza (an agent of bacterial pneumonia). | Garrison | Garrison gives the date as 1892-93, and refers the agent as the "influenza bacillus" (presumably the explanation of the specific name). | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1892 | Posadas | Discovered agent of coccidiodomycocis, later named Coccidoides immitis. | Lee | Alejandro Posadas. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1892 | Roux | With Nocard, began production of diphtheria antitoxin. | Lechevalier | By inoculating horses with increasing doses of the toxin. Not known if reported or by whom. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1892 | Sabouraud | Published first of his historic studies on dermatophytes as agents of ringworm. | Ainsworth | Raymond Sabouraud. His major treatise did not appear until 1910, but the studies carried out before the turn of the century included the treatment of tinea capitis by x-ray depilation. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1892 | Smith | With Kilborne, published note on a microbial disease transmitted by arthropods. | Katz | Theobald Smith and Fred L. Kilborne. The note (in a letter to an editor) referred to both the protozoon parasite and the arthropod vector. This was a preliminary announcement of what was to become a landmark paper; see 1893 Smith. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1892 | Unna | Described the different fungi of favus. | Norman | P.G. Unna. See Schönlein or Schoenlein. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1892 | Welch | Reported discovery of the bacterial agent of gas gangrene. | Ackermann | Clostridium perfringens Type A. Formerly C. welchii and Bacillus aerogenes capsulatus. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1892 | Wurtz | Used pH indicators in bacteriological media. | Anon. | This obviated the need for titrations to demonstrate acid production by microorganisms. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1893 | Behring | Developed, with Ehrlich's help, a practical and effective antitoxin for diphtheria. | Brock | Since his pioneering work with Kitasato (see 1890), Behring had continued to develop antitoxin as a treatment for diphtheria. It was also widely used for prevention of the disease. Success was largely owing to the standardization techniques developed by Ehrlich. The collaboration and subsequent quarrel between the two men has become well known. About the same time, Roux, in France, built on Behring's basic discovery to develop an effective antitoxin; see Roux 1892, 1894. According to Brock, Roux disclaimed credit for the discovery of antitoxin therapy. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1893 | Berg | Reported association between scarlet fever and streptococci and toxin. | Foster | Name also given as Berge. Berg reported that scarlet fever appeared to be caused by local infections of streptococci (usually on the surface of tonsils) and that the skin rash was caused by a toxin released from the internal site. This was apparently rediscovered many years later. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1893 | Buchner | Reported that serum does not kill bacteria if it is heated to 56°C. | Silverstein | He called the putative heat-labile substance "alexine" (superseded by "complement"). Silverstein gives date of discovery (publication) as 1889. See 1895. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1893 | Escherich | Contributed to the development of a serological test for diphtheria. | Friedmann | Theodor Escherich, with Klemensiewicz, was one of the first to demonstrate antitoxin in serum of recovered diphtheria patients -- a finding that his pupil Schick later used in the development of the Schick intracutaneous test. For Friedmann reference, see Escherich 1885. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1893 | Haffkine | Used an attenuated vaccine to control cholera in India. | Bibel | The vaccine was based on guinea pig studies and attenuation was by aeration of bacterial cultures. Haffkine tested it on himself and a few friends, and used it on more than 40,000 people in India. While not rigorously controlled, this field trial probably represents the first reasonably successful anti-bacterial vaccine used in humans. Not mentioned in Garrison 4th Ed. The Haffkine story is told in "The Story of Dr. Haffkine" by Mark Popovsky, published (without date but evidently during the Soviet era) by Progress Publishers, Moscow; translated from the Russian by Vezey; with photographs. [W.C.C. coll.] | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1893 | Kohler | Reported improved method of illumination for use in photomicrography. | Anon. | Used collecting lens and diaphragm placed near the lamp to achieve even lighting in the specimen plane. Sophisticated rationale and practical benefits led to widespread use. Roy. Micro. Soc. Anniversary Publications, 1993. | Microscopy | General | Details |
| 1893 | Leuckart | Reported (per Manson) the presence of adult worms (Onchocerca) in subcutaneous nodules of human. | Grove | O. volvulus. The microfilariae cause skin damage and "river blindness." | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1893 | Smith | Reported a bacillus (later Erwinia) tracheiphilus) as cause of wilt disease in cucumbers. | Anon. | E. F. Smith. This was the beginning of his studies, which were to become a major force in plant bacteriology (little progress had been made since the first report of bacteria as plant pathogens in 1877). | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1893 | Smith | With Kilborne, issued classic report on Texas Cattle Fever (babesiosis) including vector transmission. | Foster | Theobald Smith and Fred L. Kilborne. Included causative agent (Pyrosoma bigeminum = Babesia bigemina), vector (Boophilus bovis = B. annulatus) and immunization. The protozoan agent had been seen by Smith as early as 1886. Tick transmission had long been suspected (see Gamgee, 1869), and confirmed by Smith and colleagues over a period of four years (1889-93). Issued in 1893 as reports for 1891 and 1892. First transmission of a protozoon by an arthropod. See Babes, 1888. Garrison 4th gives reference to a publication (preliminary announcement?) by Smith in 1891 (Med News. Phila.). A preliminary announcement by both authors appeared in Veterinarian 65: 352-352, 1892 (cited by Katz; see 1892). See Malone, J. B., Vet. Parasitol. 33: 3-29, 1989 (includes an account of the role played by Cooper Curtice, and points up the importance of the disease control made possible by discovery of the parasite and its mode of transmission). | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1894 | Anon. | Built first cattle dipping vat in USA, for control of mites and, later, the tick vector of protozoan parasite. | Malone | Initially used for control of mange mite, but soon used for exposing cattle to chemicals that would kill the tick vector of Texas Cattle Fever (babesiosis). Malone, J. B., Veterinary Parasitology 33: 3-29,1989 A major milestone in the control of microbial disease. See 1895 Kleberg | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1894 | Busse | Reported isolation of a yeast (later Cryptococcus) from patient. | Anon. | He isolated it from the tibia of a patient with widespread disease (saccharomycosis hominis, later cryptococcosis). | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1894 | Durham | With Grunbaum, discovered agglutination of Eberth-Gaffky bacilli only in serum of typhoid patients, supporting the alleged causation of typhoid by the bacilli. | Waller | Herbert Durham and Albert Grunbaum were working in von Gruber's laboratory. They forfeited credit for their discovery because they failed to publish it before Widal reported his agglutination test for typhoid (see Widal 1896). The bacilli were later named Salmonella typhi. This item could be put in the Immunology category (as is Widal's contribution) but Waller emphasizes its significance in establishing causation. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1894 | Ermengem | Discovered Bacillus botulinus, agent of botulism. | Ackerknecht | More fully, van Ermengem. Garrison gives date as 1897. Later Clostridium botulinum (sporulating, anaerobic, gram-negative). Index Bergeyana cites publication of1896. Earlier date, above, may not signify publication. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1894 | Fischer | Showed that bacteria have a cell wall as well as a cell membrane. | Anon. | Demonstrated by plasmolysis. The bacterial cell wall was to become the operational site of some important antibiotics. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1894 | Gilchrist | Reported a new skin disease caused by a yeast, later named Blastomyces dermatididis. | Garrison | Tomas Casper Gilchrist. Thick-walled yeast. Garrison 4th gives 1896. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1894 | Gruber | Observed, according to his own later account, the agglutination of cholera germs by antiserum. | Lechevalier | Max von Gruber. His pupil Durham pursued the matter; see 1897. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1894 | Kitasato | Isolated bacterial agent of plague (Yersinia pestis). | Ackerknecht | Discovered independently by Yersin in same place (Hong Kong) at same time. Some uncertainty about the purity of Kiasato's cultures. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1894 | Manson | Published theory of malaria transmission by mosquito. | Kean | Patrick Manson is generally credited with providing the impetus for the work of Ross. See Ross 1897. Manson's theory, supported by observations on the malaria parasite in human blood, was published at a time when there was still considerable skepticism in medical circles about the protozoal causation of malaria. Ross, himself, had to be persuaded by Manson's laboratory demonstration of the parasite. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1894 | Migula | Published important new classification of bacteria, but used only morphological characteristics (and motility). | Garrison | Not in Lechevalier; Garrison gives date as 1890 -1900. See 1896. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1894 | Pfeiffer | Eucidated action of complement and antibody in cell lysis. | Bellanti | Complementary work on complement was done by Jules Bordet (see 1895). The term complement was introduced by Ehrlich. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1894 | Pfeiffer | With Isayev, reported that cholera germs die in peritoneal cavity of immune, but not in normal, guinea-pig. | Norman | R. F. I. Pfeiffer and V. I. Isayev (sometimes given as Issaell). The effect is known as "Pfeifer's phenomenon." Cholera organisms in peritoneal cavity of normal guinea pigs multiply and kill the host; but in cavity of immune guinea pig, they round up and clump (and die). Silverstein gives an 1895 publication. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1894 | Roux | Issued influential report on diphtheria antitoxin. | Anon. | Emile Roux presented a preliminary report, at a congress, of treating children with antidiphtheric serum (from horses injected with toxin). Successful and influential. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1894 | Roux | With Martin, started producing antitoxin by immunizing horses instead of guinea pigs or sheep. | Anon. | This was adopted by Behring and others. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1894 | Vincent | Described organism in lesions of Madura Foot. | Anon. | Considered it causative and named it Actinomyces madurae. See 1860. Not in Garrison; not in Lechevalier. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1894 | Yersin | Reported bacillus responsible for plague (Yersinia pestis). | Lechevalier | Work done in Hong Kong at same time as Kitasato's work on plague in same city. Full account in Lechevalier. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1895 | Anon. | Diphtheria antitoxin was used strategically on a community basis. | Anon. | It was given to children who had been in contact with diphtheria cases. In New York 6,000 contacts were given antitoxin between 1895 and 1900, with good results. In the 20th Century this approach to community prevention was superseded by the use of toxin-antitoxin mixtures and then by the use of detoxified toxin (toxoid). The new methods were integrated with the Schick test for identifying susceptibles. While the use of antitoxin "serum therapy" to treat sick children was adopted very quickly, its public health use was hampered by adverse reactions in healthy children and was adopted more slowly. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1895 | Bordet | Reported discovery of complement. | Brock (1961) | Reported discovery of a normal blood substance which can interact with antibody to cause immune reactions such as the killing or lysis of bacteria. The substance "complement" became the basis of a major type of immunodiagnosis. See 1893. More specifically, Bordet found that the lytic effect of cholera-immune serum on cholera germs could be made much stronger by the addition of a small amount of normal serum (which could be cell-free). See 1895 Metchnikoff. See English translation in Brock 1961. See 1894 Pfeiffer. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1895 | Bruce | Reported the tsetse fly as vector of the trypanosome that causes nagana in horses. | Foster | The role of tsetse fly in transmitting human trypanosomiasis was not demonstrated until the beginning of the 20th century. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1895 | Danielssen | Continued to believe, until his death in this year, that leprosy is hereditary. | Anon. | This entry is included as an example of opposition to germ theory at the end of the 19th century; (also, Virchow). See 1847. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1895 | Denys | With Leclef, showed that serum of an immunized animal enhanced the activity of phagocytes against the germs used as immunogens. | Anon. | Wright later named the serum substance opsonin. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1895 | Jager | Confirmed the presence of Diplococcus in meningitis. | Anon. | See 1887, 1896. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1895 | Kleberg | Began dipping cattle in phenolic baths to eradicate tick vector of bovine babesiosis. | Roncalli | Roncalli, R., Amer. Assoc. Vet. Parasitol., Newsletter, 1990. The phenol baths were later replaced by safer arsenical dips. See 1896. See 1894 Anon. concerning dipping vat for same purpose. See Cooper. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1895 | Marmorek | Reported the production of a streptococcal antiserum in horses. | Anon. | Concluded that it gave clinical benefit in human streptococcal diseases. Work on the streptococci was of uncertain value until methods were developed, early in the 20th Century, for the "typing" of strains on the basis of their lytic characteristics when grown on blood-agar. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1895 | Metchnikoff | Reported the clumping of cholera germs when guinea-pig exudate was added to cholera-immune serum in which germs were present. | Lechevalier | When peritoneal exudate was added, the germs rounded up and clumped as in Pheiffer Phenomenon, see 1894. The normal exudate contained cells, and Metchnikoff's pupil Bordet, in determining that the cells were not necessary, was led to his discovery of "complement." See 1895 Bordet. Bordet mentioned Metchnikoff's contribution briefly in his 1895 paper. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1895 | Smith | Reported causative agent of infectious enterohepatitis (Blackhead) in turkeys. | Katz | Theobald Smith. See F. F. Katz, Veterinary Heritage 17: 63-71, 1994. Smith named the protozoon Amoeba meleagridis, and the name was later changed to Histomonas meleagridis. Transmission was later (1920) shown to be through ingestion of worm eggs containing the protozoon. The worm is a nematode (Heterakis papillosa, later H. gallinarum) and is a common parasite of turkeys. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1896 | Curtice | Proposed program for eradication of tick vector of cattle babesiosis. | Roncalli | Described by M. C. Hall as an "epochal paper." Begun in 1906, the U.S. tick control efforts led to eradication within U.S.A. by 1960. To what extent was it the Cooper plan? See Roncalli, Amer. Assoc. Vet. Parasitol. Newsletter, 1990. See 1895 Kleberg. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1896 | Dibdin | With Schweder, devised sewage treatment by filtration. | Garrison | Passage through coke and stone in iron cylinders. According to Garrison, was among the methods responsible for reducing mortality due to typhoid, etc. Also given as Dibden in some sources. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1896 | Durham | Published note on agglutination of germs by antisera and its diagnostic potential. | Lechevalier | Herbert E. Durham did the work in Gruber's laboratory. This note was six months prior to Widal's publication of an agglutination test, but Durham did not publish his full paper until 1897 (q.v.). See 1896: Widal. See Gruber 1894. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1896 | Gosio | Reported product of Penicillium with antibacterial properties. | Anon. | Later shown to be mycophenolic acid. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1896 | Hankin | Postulated a living entity (bacteriophage?) capable of blocking infectivity of cholera germs. | MacGregor | According to John MacGregor in New Scientist, 5 April, 2003, chemist E. H. Hankin found that water from River Ganges blocked 'the spread' of the cholera vibrio. This was not the case when the water was boiled, suggesting the presence of a living entity, and thus 'phages came to our attention in 1896.' Not clear from this account how closely Hankin came to anticipating the well known discovery of phages by d'Herelle and by Twort early in the early 20th century. | Miscellany | Viruses | Details |
| 1896 | Heubner | Confirmed the presence of Diplococcus in meningitis. | Anon. | He also produced the disease in a goat by injecting the organism into the brain cavity. See 1887, 1895. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1896 | Lehman | With Neumann, published major new classification of bacteria. | Anon. | Based not only on morphology but also on staining and spore formation. Put agents of tuberculosis and leprosy in new genus: Mycobacterium (combining Greek for fungus with Greek for small rod). These agents had been called Bacterium tuberculosis and B. leprae. New genus was defined primarily on basis of form and staining. Reported in book published in Germany. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1896 | Mikulicz | Devised gauze mask to cover surgeon's nose and mouth to protect patient from germs. | Richardson | Tied behind the head. Was used to protect patient from germs known to exist in droplets expelled during speech. See Hunter, 1900. See 1890 Halsted. Masks were not accepted as essential until the 1920s. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1896 | Morax | Described Morax-Axenfeld bacillus as cause of angular conjunctivitis in human. | Lee | Victor Morax. Probably refers to organism currently known as Moraxella sp. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1896 | Smith | Reported bacterial causation of tomato brown rot. | Anon. | E. F. Smith. See other Smith entries for work on bacteria of plants, beginning in 1893. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1896 | Washbourn | Reported exploratory trials of a pneumococcal antiserum in two cases of lobar pneumonia. | Anon. | Results were encouraging but inconclusive. See 1891. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1896 | Widal | Described an agglutination test for the clinical diagnosis of typhoid fever. | Lechevalier | The discovery became important in establishing disease causation by a specific organism. Shiga, for example, relied on it in incriminating Shigella (as it is now called) as the agent of bacillary dysentery. See 1889, 1897. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1896 | Wright | Conducted research on a vaccine against typhoid fever. | Garrison | Almroth Wright. The vaccine was ready for testing by the following year, see 1897. His use of killed Salmonella typhi constituted the first killed-bacterium vaccine in clinical use. See 1886. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1897 | Bang | Reported the isolation of a small bacterium from the uterus of a cow during an outbreak of epizootic (contagious) abortion. | Anon. | He demonstrated its unusual culture requirements and showed it to be causative by inoculation of a pregnant cow which subsequently aborted. Decades later, the organism, Bacterium abortus, was shown to be the same as the Micrococcus melitensis of Undulant Fever (see 1887) and was named Brucella abortus. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1897 | Calmette | Began collaboration with Guerin that led to BCG vaccine for tuberculosis. | Lechevalier | Albert Calmette and Alphonse Guerin. The vaccine (BCG = bacille de Calmette et Guerin) does not seem to have been developed until after 1900, and its discovery thus does not properly belong to the Germ Theory Timeline. It is included because of the importance of the collaboration begun in 1897, and because Lee records it as having been developed in 1895. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1897 | Durham | Published full account of the use of specific agglutination to identify specific bacteria, and to diagnose diseases using patient serum. | Lechevalier | The work was done in 1894-95 under the direction of Von Gruber, but, except for a note in 1896 (q.v.), was not published until 1897 -- one year after Widal reported his own agglutination test. Check Long p. 152. See 1889. See Gruber 1894. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1897 | Ehrlich | Published procedures for standardization of diphtheria antitoxin, and proposed a new antigen-antibody theory. | Silverstein | Reported that the toxin became degraded on storage, to a substance, "toxoid," that was no longer toxic but still capable of combining with antitoxin. It was in this paper that Ehrlich proposed his "side-chain" theory of antigen-antibody interaction. It was enunciated more fully in a lecture published three years later. It was the focus of much debate in the ensuing decades. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1897 | Haffkine | Tested a killed-bacterium vaccine for the prevention of plague. | Foster | He had developed the vaccine while working in India during the previous year. Vaccination of more than 11,000 people was judged to be about 95% successful. (The deaths that occurred in one village, at the beginning of the 20th Century, are believed to be due to gross misuse of the vaccine.) This work was highly controversial; see "The Story of Dr. Haffkine" by Mark Popovsky, Progress Publishers, Moscow; undated (W.C.C. collection). Popovsky attributed many of Haffkine's problems to the inept and unscientific character of British colonial administration -- which may be a sound analysis, but Popovsky's book was published in the U.S.S.R. and other sources should be consulted. See 1897 Haffkine. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1897 | Kraus | Reported precipitation when immune serum was added to culture of homologous bacteria. | Silverstein | Demonstrated for cholera, typhoid and plague organisms. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1897 | Kronig | With Paul, published landmark work on disinfectants. | Brock (1961) | They clarified and propounded many methods and principles in the evaluation of germicides. They showed, for example, that even in a pure culture, bacterial cells vary widely in sensitivity to chemicals. Their work was of great practical importance. English translation in Brock 1961. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1897 | MacCullum | Described sexual phase in life-cycle of human and avian malaria. | Bruce-Chwatt | Observation of part of the phase (exflagellation) had been an important event in the early work of Ronald Ross on the role of mosquitos in malaria transmission. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1897 | Ogata | With Simond, showed that flea was vector of plague. | Lee | Masanori Ogata an P. L. Simond. Ackerknecht gives Simond and Ogata, in that order, but he and Lee agree on the year 1897. [This is also the year in which Ross made his key observation on the transmission of malaria by mosquitos.] See 1898 Simonds. Garrison gives year as 1898, and spells author as Simonds in text and as Simond in index. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1897 | Pfeiffer | Reported killed-bacteria vaccine for typhoid fever, just one year after Wright's vaccine. | Lechevalier | These two early killed vaccines did not provide adequate protection against strong challenge. See 1886. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1897 | Ross | Reported observation of malaria parasite in mosquito that had been fed on an infected human. | Foster | Ronald (later Sir Ronald) Ross. The famous sighting made on August 20. Published in Brit. Med. J., Dec. 18, 1897. One of the very early pieces of direct evidence for the transmission of disease by an arthropod vector. See Manson; see Smith and Kilborne. Note that Garrison 4th. Edition, p.583, says only that Ross "...demonstrated the infection of birds by means of the mosquito..." and does not mention this important clue derived from human infection. There is a vast literature on the discovery of mosquito transmission, and the roles played by Ross and Grassi. See Ross's Memoirs; see Harrison etc, etc. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1897 | Smith | Reported bacterial causation of black rot of cabbage, and bean blight. | Anon. | E. F. Smith. Further additions to work begun in 1893. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1897 | Triboulet | Isolated streptococci from patients with acute rheumatism. | Lee | Henri Triboulet. Presumably the organism would now be considered a Group A (beta hemolytic) streptococcus. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1897 | Wright | Used heat-killed typhoid bacilli to vaccinate people against typhoid fever. | Garrison | Almroth (Sir Almroth) Wright. The result of work done in the previous year, this was the first killed-bacterium vaccine, and was also the beginning of a controversial program of vaccination, especially for military personnel. The controversy centered around statistical significance, and attracted the attention of professional statisticians. Garrison gives 1896-1897 for development of vaccine, and records that Wright was responsible for vaccination of over 3000 soldiers in India in 1898-1900. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1898 | Arloing | Introduced seroagglutination test for diagnosis of tuberculosis. | Lee | Saturnin Arloing. Garrison also gives the year as 1898, and attributes the test to Arloing and Courmont. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1898 | Beijerinck | a. Published ground-breaking report on infectivity of agent of Tobacco Mosaic Disease after bacteriological filtration. | Waterson | Considered the agent fluid, and possibly a water-soluble molecule that replicates when incorporated into host cell. His description of the unseen pathogen as a fluid caused confusion (and enabled Ivanowski to make some claim for priority) but in Beijerinck's time, a quarter century before the concept of macromolecules, everything was declared to be either particulate (corpuscular) or dissolved (molecules of low molecular weight). Because the filterable virus (old and new sense) could multiply in plant tissues, it could not be a chemical toxin. Work apparently done in 1897; first publication in 1998 in Dutch; German version in 1899. Lechevalier and Solotorovsky give lengthy quote from comprehensive paper of 1900. | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1898 | Beijerinck | b. Suggested a link between virus and cancer. | Anon. | Confirmation of a link between virus and cancer was made by others after 1900 (notably by Rous in 1909) and is therefore outside the scope of this Timeline. | Miscellany | Viruses | Details |
| 1898 | Belfanti | With Carbone, reported immune hemolysis. | Silverstein | See Bordet 1899. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1898 | Bignami | With others, described life cycle of malaria parasites in humans and mosquitoes. | Foster | Amigo Bignami's important work followed the lead provided by Ross in the previous year. His collaborators were Grassi and Bastionelli. Bignami was already an expert on malaria, and there is some evidence that he, like others, suspected the role of the mosquito. See Parasitol. Today 9:348, 1993. See 1899. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1898 | Bordet | Reported immunological lysis of erythrocytes. | Bibel | Bordet reported that if red blood cells of, say, a sheep, are injected into another animal, say, a rabbit, the serum of the rabbit will cause lysis of sheep red blood cells in vitro. While this does not involve microbes, the discovery provided important practical and theoretical tools for serodiagnosis. See 1900. Bibel gives an English translation of the paper. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1898 | Councilman | With colleagues, published major report on cerebro-spinal meningitis. | Anon. | Gave unequivocal evidence of causation by Diplococcus (later named Neisseria). See 1887, 1896. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1898 | Durham | a. Reported results of investigating outbreaks of "meat poisoning." | Anon. | Using the new agglutination test, he confirmed that Bacillus (Salmonella) enteritidis was the causative agent. See 1888, 1899. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1898 | Durham | b. Introduced tubes that could be placed inside test tubes to measure gas produced by bacteria. | Anon. | Reflects rapid increase in sophisticaton of bacteriology at close of 19th century. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1898 | Koch | Described Theileria parva, agent of East Coast Fever in cattle. | Anon. | Parasitol. Today 9: 348, 1993 or '94. Koch's work on the control of the disease was not successful; see Brock, 1991 | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1898 | Loeffler | With Frosch, reported filterable germ (virus) as agent of animal disease. | Brock | They reported that the agent of bovine hoof-and-mouth disease could pass through bacteriological filters, and that it multiplied in cattle and so was not a chemical toxin. They assumed it was a submicroscopic bacterium, but were apparently the first to show that an animal disease was caused by what we now call a virus. Result of commission begun in 1897; findings published '97 and '98 (key finding in the '98 section?). Greer Williams, in "Virus Hunters," devotes several pages to Beijerinck but only one sentence to Loeffler and Frosch. See Brock 1961 for English translation. | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1898 | Loos | Reported that hookworm infect host by larval penetration of skin. | Grove | Discovery followed accidental self exposure. | Causation | Helminths | Details |
| 1898 | Nocard | Reported that bovine pleuro-pneumonia was caused by a filterable agent, now Mycoplasma mycoides. | Garrison | Edmond Nocard. Reported with colleagues as co-authors. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1898 | Pfeiffer | With Marx, reported first evidence that antibodies are produced in particular organs. | Anon. | Richard Pfeiffer. The antibodies were produced especially in liver and spleen. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1898 | Ross | Reported (per Manson) transmission of bird malaria from mosquito to bird and bird to mosquito. | Foster | Ronald Ross. A landmark in the discovery of disease transmission by arthropod vector. Organism was Protesoma, a hemoflagellate later namedPlasmodium. There is an extensive literature on the discovery of the transmission of Plasmodium, Proteosoma, Halteridium. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1898 | Schenck | Reported a fungus (resembling a "sporotricha") in a human disease later termed sporotrichosis. | Garrison | Benjamin R.Schenck. Agent is sapropytic fungus, Sporothrix schenckii. See 1900. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1898 | Shiga | Reported bacillus as agent of dysentery, naming it Bacillus dysenteriae (now Shigella). | Lechevalier | Kiyoshi Shiga. Publlished in a series of papers, in German, in 1898 (Garrison gives previous year as year of discovery). Recognizing the limitation of Koch's postulates for causation (germ present in all cases, absent in others, similarly pathogenic in animals) Shiga added a fourth criterion: agglutination of germs in serum of patient. This work on acute dysentery was done before Shiga (a Kitasato pupil) went to work with Ehrlich. The agent of another type of bacterial dysentery was reported by Flexner, see 1900. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1898 | Simond | Demonstrated transmission of bubonic plague by flea. | Garrison | Garrison gives the name as Simonds in the text, but as Simond in the index. Ackerknecht omits the final 's' and attributes the discovery to Simond and Ogata. See entry for 1897 Ogata. The original paper is cited by Busvine (J. R. Busvine, Insects, Hygiene and History, 1976) and is probably authoritative regarding spelling: Simond, P. L., La Propagation de la Peste, Ann. Inst. Pasteur (1898) 12, 625. Knowledge that the germ of plague (Yersinia pestis) could be transmitted by fleas from rat to human was to have enormouis implications in attempts to control the disease. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1898 | Smith | Reported bacterial causation of maize wilt. | Anon. | Erwin F. Smith. Another in the series begun in 1893. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1898 | Smith | Showed that human and bovine tubercle bacilli were different strains of the same organism. | Lechevalier | Theobald Smith. Organisms appeared to be identical, but their differences in infectivity to various animals species was clear. This led Koch to the mistaken conclusion that the bovine infection was not transmissible to humans. This was of practical importance in relation to public health measures in the early years of the 20th Century. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1898 | Vincent | Found spirochaete in throat of patients with what was later called Vincent's Angina. | Garrison | Henri Vincent. Lee refers to the organism as Treponema vincentii. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1899 | Anon. | Reported an outbreak of microbial "meat poisoning" (salmonellosis) in Belgium. | Anon. | It was found to be caused by a germ serologically distinct from the Bacillus (Salmonella) enteritidis implicated in other outbreaks (see 1898). This was later found to be Salmonella typhi-murium. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1899 | Anon. | Reported the start of a war that would, for last time, have more germ-caused than bullet-caused casualties. | McNeill | The Boer War (1899 - 1902) was last major war with more deaths from disease than from fighting. The Russo-Japanese war of 1904 - 1906 was first major war with reverse ratio. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1899 | Bancroft | Suggested transmission of filariasis by bite of mosquito. | Grove | Thomas Bancroft, son of Joseph who had found the adult worm in 1876. Cf. Manson, 1877, who thought that transmission resulted from drinking water in which the mosquito had died. Bancroft's view was confirmed by Low in 1900. | Miscellany | Helminths | Details |
| 1899 | Celli | Obtained evidence that malaria could be prevented by keeping mosquitos out of dwellings. | Foster | Demonstration involved a single family, in a sinlge screened hut, in a highly malarious area of Italy. Occupants remained indoors from sunset until dawn, and were free of malaria throughout malaria season -- except for the husband who went outside in the evenings, and contracted malaria. In the previous two years the anpoheline mosquito had been shown to be the vector of malaria. This preceded by one year the experiment in which Manson demonstrated the prevention of malaria by screening a hut in the same endemic are (a near Rome). | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1899 | Deutsch | Reported that removal of spleen of guinea pigs reduced the level of antibodies in blood. | Anon. | Also that implantation of spleen in peritoneal cavity resulted in appearance of antibodies in recipient animal. See 1898. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1899 | Emmerich | With Low, used by-product of bacterium (Pseudomonas) in attempt to alleviate diphtheria by immune enhancement. | Collard | They considered it an enzyme ("pyocyanase") acting through immune enhancement, not through bacterial antagonism. Also, treatment of wound infection. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |
| 1899 | Grassi | With Bignami, reported that human malarial parasistes develop only in Anopheles mosquito. | Garrison | See entry for Ross 1897. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1899 | Rogers | Showed that tabanid fly was vector of trypanosomiasis (surra) in horses. | Foster | Leonard Rogers. This was 4 years after Bruce had reported tsetse fly as vector of nagana in cattle, with development in fly -- but, in surra, transmission is merely mechanical and fly is infective for only 24 hours. | Causation | Protozoa | Details |
| 1899 | Smith | Reviewed the literature on bacterial diseases of plants. | Doetsch | E. F. Smith himself had reported several such diseases in the preceding three years, and argued forcefully for acceptance of the concept. | Causation | Bacteria | Details |
| 1900 | Anon. | The causative agents of 9 human microbial diseases were known. | Anon. | Bacteria: cerebrospinal meningitis, cholera, diphtheria, gonorrhea, leprosy, tetanus, tuberculosis. Protozoa: amebiasis, malaria. In addition, various macroscopic endo- and ecto- parasites were known. But not also (?) "meat poisoning" -- see Durham 1898 and Durham 1900. Some infections of domestic animals were also known. | Causation | General | Details |
| 1900 | Durham | Reviewed pathogenic and commensal enteric bacteria. | Anon. | Durham summarized and discussed the known similarities between bacteria that (a) cause typhoid or parathyhoid, (b) cause the gastroenteritis of food poisoning, and (c) live, primarily commensally, in the human colon. This family of organisms was later named Enterobacteriaceae. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1900 | Ehrlich | Revised the theoretical basis of immuno-serology. | Anon. | He introduced the term "complement" for the heat-labile factor in serum that is necessary for germicidal and hemolytic reactions (see 1893, 1898) and provided the groundwork for the development of the "complement fixation test" by Bordet and Gengou a few years later. | Immunology | General | Details |
| 1900 | Hekton | With Perkins, reported isolation of a fungus from a lesion on a human finger. | Anon. | Presumably Ludwig Hekton (Hektoen). Because of its similarity to that isolated by Schenck (see 1898) he called the fungus Sporothrix schenckii. The disease became known as sporotrichosis. | Causation | Fungi | Details |
| 1900 | Hunter | Introduced (or popularized) gauze face-mask to minimize wound infection in surgery.. | Anon. | W. Hunter. The mask was to reduce exposure of patient to germs in surgeon's breath. Source (no longer identifiable) said 'introduced' but see Mikulicz 1896. See Halsted 1890. Did Hunter merely promote? | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1900 | MacConkey | Published first solid differential medium for microbiology. | Anon. | Later modified. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1900 | Manson | Arranged two demonstrations of the role of anopheline mosquito in malarial transmission. | Foster | Patrick Manson, who had prompted the work of Ross (see 1897), was apparently the motivating force behind two crucial confirmatory experiments. One was an epidemiological experiment in which malaria was shown to be preventable by screening windows to keep out mosquitos. A similar experiment had been done be Celli in 1899. The other, done concurrently in the summer of 1900, involved induced malaria in humans living in a non-endemic area. Through collaboration with Grassi (and Bignami and Bastianelli), anopheline mosquitoes were fed on a patient with malaria ((Plasmodium vivalx) in Italy, taken to England, and allowed to bite 2 subjects. Both contracted malaria. Patrick Manson-Bahr, in his book 'Patrick Manson' mentions only one subject -- Manson's son Patrick Thurburn Manson. | Miscellany | Protozoa | Details |
| 1900 | Neuberg | Reported that yeast ferments glucose to make ethanol in a series of biochemical steps. | Anon. | He realized that each step required its own enzyme -- as opposed to Buchner's concept of a single enzyme (zymase, see 1897). The process of microbial metabolism was later shown to be even more complex. | Miscellany | General | Details |
| 1900 | Reed | Headed the commission that demonstrated the correctness of Finlay's hypothesis that mosquito was vector of Yellow Fever. | Lechevalier | See 1881. Work was done mostly in 1900 and published in 1901. This was the first of many virus diseases shown to be arthropod-borne. And first human disease shown to be caused by virus? | Causation | Viruses | Details |
| 1900 | Reed | With Vaughan and Shakespeare, reported that people may harbor, and disseminate, the bacillus of typhoid fever without themselves becoming ill. | Cirillo | That some healthy individuals can be typhoid 'carriers' was recognized during the Spanish-American War of 1898. The 'carrier' state, a very important bacteriological and epidemiological concept, was recognized by medical personnel reviewing disastrous typhoid outbreaks that had occurred in military encampments within the United States of America prior to August 1898. The essence of their findings was published in 1900. As pointed out by Cirillo, credit for discovery of the carrier state is usully accorded to Koch, although the phenomenon had previously been described in unmistakeable terms by Reed and his colleagues. Koch's finding was announced in 1902 and published in 1903 (and not eligible for inclusion in the Germ Theory Timeline). Budd's recognition of post-convalescence persistence of infection is a different issue. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1900 | Schottmueller | Introduced the name Bacillus paratyphosus (later Salmonella paratyphi). | Anon. | He gave it to a germ that looked like the typhoid germ (S. typhi) and caused a disease similar to typhoid -- but which was not agglutinated by typhoid antiserum. He was not the first to encounter these infections, which were rendered atypical by the use of serology to diagnose typhoid, and which therefore caused confusion until the agent was recognized as a separate species. Not in Garrison 4th. or Lechevalier. | Miscellany | Bacteria | Details |
| 1900 | Wright | Began to investigate the use of bacterial vaccines, not for prevention, but for cure. | Foster | Sir Almroth Wright. His work in 1900 was on the use of heat-killed Staphylococcus for the treatment of recurrent boils. The episode is included here because Wright's account of the work (in 1902) was, according to Foster, scientifically worthless but enormously influential. It launched an era (the pre-antibiotic first half of the 20th Century) of medically and scientifically dubious "vaccine therapy" for a wide variety of infectious diseases. Unlike "serum therapy" (passive transfer of antitoxin) it had no laboratory or clinical validation -- despite its emphasis on measuring the phagocytic and "opsonic" capacity of the patient's serum. The movement created a demand for hospital bacteriologists and strengthened the profession of bacteriology. | Immunology | Bacteria | Details |