Spontaneous Generation and an Eighteenth Century Italian Rabbi-Physician.

Spontaneous generation is usually stated to have been laid to rest by Louis Pasteur with his swan-necked flask experiments. However, a century and a half earlier an Italian physician-Rabbi, Isaac Lampronti, was so convinced of the falsity of spontaneous generation that he was willing to overturn Jewish legal precedent.

Universal etiology, multifactorial diseases and the constitutive model of disease classification.

Infectious diseases are often said to have a universal etiology, while chronic and noncommunicable diseases are said to be multifactorial in their etiology. It has been argued that the universal etiology of an infectious disease results from its classification using a monocausal disease model. In this article, I will reconstruct the monocausal model and argue that modern 'multifactorial diseases' are not monocausal by definition. 'Multifactorial diseases' are instead defined according to a constitutive disease model. On closer analysis, infectious diseases are also defined using the constitutive model rather than the monocausal model. As a result, our classification models alone cannot explain why infectious diseases have a universal etiology while chronic and noncommunicable diseases lack one. The explanation is instead provided by the Nineteenth Century germ theorists.

Infection, contagion and causality in Colonial Britain: the 1889-90 influenza pandemic and the British Medical Journal.

The influenza pandemic of 1889 was the first truly global flu outbreak in scope. Characterised by high morbidity and low mortality, it spread rapidly across Europe and the rest of the world along trading routes. It reached mainland Britain in December 1889. The responses of medical practitioners in Britain and the British colonies to the pandemic were heavily featured in the British Medical Journal and reveal a confusing picture around causality, contagion and infection. Cases from the colonies (Cape Town, India, Australia, Samoan Islands, Hong Kong) as presented in the journal are explored in an attempt to reconstruct the mainstream medical belief of the time. The evidence sadly shows a lack of confidence in contagionism, almost complete absence of monocausalism and a vague picture of the epidemic constitution. Original case studies from colonial medical officers as well as editorials triggered a debate in the pages of the BMJ. In this context, the journal succeeded in playing a key role in recording the first thoroughly documented attack of influenza. In a world that was only learning to be interconnected, the BMJ became the point of reference for the British medical establishment, which ranged from London to Scotland and from Africa and India to Oceania.

Reorganizing Hospital Space: The 1894 Plague Epidemic in Hong Kong and the Germ Theory.

This paper examined whether the preventive measures taken by the Hong Kong's colonial authorities were legitimate during the 1894 Hong Kong plague epidemic, and illuminated the correlation between the plague epidemic and hospital space in Hong Kong in the late 19th century. The quarantine measures taken by the colonial authorities were neither a clear-cut victory for Western medicine nor for a rational quarantine based on scientific medical knowledge. Hong Kong's medical officials based on the miasma theory, and focused only on house-to-house inspections and forced quarantine or isolation, without encouraging people to wear masks and without conducting disinfection. Even after Hong Kong plague spread, the Hong Kong's colonial authorities were not interested in what plague bacilli were, but in where they were to be found and how to prevent and control an outbreak of the disease. The germ theory brought significant changes to the disease classification system. Until the 1890s, Hong Kong's colonial authority had classified cause of death mainly on the basis of symptoms, infectious diseases, parts of the body and diseases of systems. Microbiological analysis of the cause of death in Hong Kong was started by Hunter, a bacteriologist, in 1902. He used bacteriological tests with a microscope to analyze the cause of death. New disease recognition and medical recognition brought large changes to hospital space as well. In particular, from the 1880s to the early 1900s, Western medical circles witnessed shifts from miasma theory to the germ theory, thereby influencing Hong Kong's hospital spaces. As the germ theory took ground in Hong Kong in 1894, the bacteriological laboratory and isolation ward became inevitable facilities, and hospital space were reorganized accordingly. However, the colonial authorities and local elites' strategy was different. As a government bacteriologist, Hunter established a central facility to unify several laboratories and to manage urban space from ouside the hospital. On the contrary, the Tungwah Hospital tried to transform hospital space with isolation ward and Receiving Ward System as the eclectic form of Chinese and Western medicine. The 1894 Hong Kong plague promoted the introduction of germ theory and the reorganization of hospital space.

O micróbio protagonista: notas sobre a divulgação da bacteriologia na Gazeta Médica da Bahia, século XIX / The protagonist microbe: notes on the communication of bacteriology in the Gazeta Médica da Bahia journal, nineteenth century

Resumo A teoria dos germes, decorrente, em especial, dos trabalhos de Louis Pasteur e Robert Koch, fez estremecer as bases do saber médico a partir da segunda metade do período oitocentista e promoveu uma revolução na “arte de curar”. A busca por micróbios específicos para as doenças norteou as investigações de pesquisadores convertidos aos dogmas pasteurianos. Este trabalho procura mostrar, em linhas gerais, o papel desempenhado pela Gazeta Médica da Bahia no processo de divulgação da bacteriologia junto às comunidades médicas baiana e nacional. O artigo apresenta alguns trabalhos e reflexões de colaboradores do periódico e destaca algumas controvérsias que ajudaram a traçar um panorama da difusão da teoria dos germes pelo Brasil ao longo do século XIX.

Abstract Germ theory, derived particularly from the work of Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch, shook the foundations of medical knowledge in the second half of the nineteenth century and triggered a revolution in the “art of healing.” The search for specific microbes for diseases guided the investigations of the researchers converted to the Pasteurian tenets. This paper aims to show what role the Gazeta Médica da Bahia journal played in spreading knowledge about bacteriology to the medical communities in Bahia and throughout Brazil. Some works and reflections by the newspaper’s authors at the time are presented, as are some of the controversies that help depict the way germ theory was divulged in Brazil throughout the nineteenth century.

[The protagonist microbe: notes on the communication of bacteriology in the Gazeta Médica da Bahia journal, nineteenth century]. / O micróbio protagonista: notas sobre a divulgação da bacteriologia na Gazeta Médica da Bahia, século XIX.

Germ theory, derived particularly from the work of Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch, shook the foundations of medical knowledge in the second half of the nineteenth century and triggered a revolution in the "art of healing." The search for specific microbes for diseases guided the investigations of the researchers converted to the Pasteurian tenets. This paper aims to show what role the Gazeta Médica da Bahia journal played in spreading knowledge about bacteriology to the medical communities in Bahia and throughout Brazil. Some works and reflections by the newspaper's authors at the time are presented, as are some of the controversies that help depict the way germ theory was divulged in Brazil throughout the nineteenth century.

Felix Platter and a historical perspective of the meningioma.

INTRODUCTION: Felix Platter is one of the pioneer anatomists and physicians of the 16th century who described various human diseases including meningioma. In this historical article, we present the details of Platter's life and his pioneering work on meningioma. FIRST CASE OF MENINGIOMA: In 1614, Dr. Platter described the first case of meningioma. He described the tumor as a round, fleshy mass shaped like an acorn and as large as a medium-sized apple, and full of holes. The tumor was covered with its own membrane, had no connection with the matters of the brain, and left behind a cavity after removal. This first clear description of an intracranial tumor is most consistent with encapsulated meningioma. The succeeding scholar, Harvey Cushing, coined the term "meningioma" for this tumor; neurosurgeons today describe the tumor as "parasagittal or falcine meningioma." OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS: In addition to his contribution to meningioma study, Dr. Platter was also the first to describe Dupuytren's disease, hypertrophy of the thalamus, and the retina as the sensory organ of the eye. He contributed to the germ theory of disease and gave substantial accounts of mental illnesses, gynecological disorders, and certain dermatological conditions. PUBLICATIONS: Dr. Platter published numerous accounts on various diseases. In 1614 he reported the case of meningioma in the book entitled "Platerus Observations in Hominis". Additionally, Dr. Platter published his work, 'Praxeos Medicae,' which contains his most important contribution on psychiatry and his classification of psychiatric diseases. CONCLUSION: Because of his many contributions to neuroscience, particularly his identification of meningioma, Dr. Platter should be highly credited as a pioneer in the field of neurosurgery.

Disinfection in the laboratory: theory and practice in disinfection policy in late C19th and early C20th England.

This article examines the relationship between theory and practice in nineteenth century English public health disinfection practice. Disinfection undertaken by local authorities and practised on objects, spaces and people became an increasingly common public health practice in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and was part of a newly developed public health system of 'stamping out' disease as described by Hardy. Despite disinfection's key role in public health policy, it has thus far not received significant investigation or historiographical attending. This article explores the development of disinfection policy at local level, highlighting that despite commentators assumptions that increasingly exacting standards of disinfection required professional oversight rather than that of the 'amateur' public, there was a significant gap between laboratory based knowledge and evidence derived from practical experience. Laboratory conditions could not replicate those found in day-to-day disinfection, and there were myriad debates about how to create a mutually understandable scientific standard for testing. Despite increasing efforts to bring local disinfection in line with new ideas promulgated by central government and disinfection researchers, the mismatches between the two meant that there was greater divergence. This tension lay at the heart of the changes in disinfection theory and practice in the second half of the nineteenth century, and illustrate the complexities of the impact of germ theory on public health policy.

Poison politics: a contentious history of consumer protection against dangerous household chemicals in the United States.

The history of consumer protection against household poisons presents a key case study of the uniquely American struggle to balance public health and safety with the interests of business. By the late 19th century, package designs, warning labels, and state statutes had formed an uneven patchwork of protective mechanisms against accidental poisonings. As household chemicals proliferated in the early 20th century, physicians concerned with childhood poisonings pressured the federal government to enact legislation mandating warning labels on packaging for these substances. Manufacturers of household chemicals agreed to labeling requirements for caustic poisons but resisted broader regulation. Accidental poisonings of children continued to increase until the enactment of broad labeling and packaging legislation in the 1960s and 1970s. This history suggests that voluntary agreements between government agencies and manufacturers are inadequate to protect consumers against household poisonings and that, in the United States, protective household chemical regulation proceeds in a reactive rather than a precautionary manner.

"Spitting is dangerous, indecent, and against the law!" legislating health behavior during the American tuberculosis crusade.

Tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in early twentieth-century America. Reducing the sputum vector of contagion by changing public behavior initially focused on anti-spitting campaigns. According to most Progressive Era health experts, "promiscuous" spitting was a prime culprit in spreading the disease. Beginning in 1896 in New York, towns and cities throughout America passed anti-spitting legislation, sometimes creating tensions between individual liberty and the need to protect public health, and often highlighting class issues. Progressives viewed anti-spitting legislation in a favorable light because they advocated improving the health and well-being of Americans using state-of-the-art medical knowledge and because they often advocated the use of law and the coercive power of the state to impose order on society.

Medical climatology in France: the persistence of Neo-Hippocratic ideas in the first half of the twentieth century.

In interwar France the Lyonnais physician Marius Piéry undertook an ambitious Neo-Hippocratic research program to study how atmospheric and terrestrial environments influenced health. Lyon had a number of institutions linked to the colonies and was a center for the training of military physicians. Colonial physicians had a long tradition of contending with the diseases of tropical environments, and their ideas and many returned colonials circulated in Lyon and its region. Piéry was a physician during World War I and published on military medical topics. He also included colonial and military health concerns in his more mature works from the 1930s. An advocate of the close study of the physical sciences, he investigated the radioactive gases of health spas and the effects of altitude on pulmonary tuberculosis, and he directed a meteorological observatory.

Joseph Lister (1827-1912): a pioneer of antiseptic surgery remembered a century after his death.

Joseph Lister was a remarkable British surgeon who pioneered principles of antisepsis. He died 100 years ago after devoting his life to developing and promoting safe, antiseptic surgery. In the 1800 s as many as 80% of all operations resulted in infection but many people refused to accept the true nature of infection, believing instead that the deaths were coincidental. Lister became familiar with the work of Pasteur while working in Glasgow. He recognized the truth in Pasteur's work and in 1867 Lister published his landmark paper 'On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery' in the British Medical Journal. It proved to be a turning point in healthcare.

"To rid oneself of the uninvited guest": Robert Koch, Sergei Winogradsky and competing styles of practice in medical microbiology.

Does an infectious disease have one, singular pathogenic cause, or many interacting causes? In the discipline of medical microbiology, there is no definitive theoretical answer to this question: there, the conditions of aetiological possibility exist in a curious tension. Ever since the late 19th century, the "germ theory of disease"­"one disease, one cause"­ has co-existed with a much less well known theory of "multifactorality"­"one disease, many interacting causes". And yet, in practice, it is always a singular and never a multifactorial aetiology that emerges once the pathogenic world is brought into the field of medical perception. This paper seeks to understand why. Performing a detailed, genealogical reading of the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, it foregrounds a set of links that connect the practical diagnostic tools at work within contemporary, 21st century laboratories to the philosophical assumptions at work within late-19th century understandings of the "germ theory of disease".

From miasmas to germs: a historical approach to theories of infectious disease transmission.

From miasma to germ theory we trace the evolution of conceptions in infectious disease transmission. Starting from the unproved theories of contagiousness we move on to miasma theory, contagion theory and spontaneous generation theory up to the revolutionary germ theory of disease transmission.