14 PHARMACEUTICAL BACTERIOLOGY 



in the disease, was merely incidental to and not causative of the 

 disorder. 



A heated controversy continued for some time. Such authorities as 

 Liebig, Nageli, Bastian, Cohn, Billroth, Hiller, Schroeder, Hoppe-Seyler, 

 Ktihne, Tiegel, Sanderson, Nencki, Serval, and Paschutin declared that 

 micro-organisms were not the cause of decay, fermentation, and disease; 

 that these changes were due to chemical substances. However, such men 

 as Pasteur, Koch, Panum, Klebs, and others forged link after link in the 

 chain of evidence connecting the causative relationship of bacteria to 

 disease. 



Period IV 



From Pasteur (1862) to Behring (1890). (Period of remarkable 

 activity in pathological bacteriology.) 



It would be impossible in a brief review to cite all of the important 

 investigations of this period. Pasteur, Koch, and others had already given 

 the subject of bacteriological technic considerable attention. The most 

 suitable culture media, laboratory apparatus, stains, etc., were determined. 

 The compound microscope had now reached a high degree of perfection, 

 and the oil-immersion lenses made the closer study of the morphology of 

 bacteria possible. 



As might be expected, the importance of germicides in surgery received 

 first attention. The " laudable pus- " formation ideas were abandoned. It 

 became the surgeon's duty to induce "primary union" or healing by " first 

 intention," that is, healing without any pus formation whatever. This 

 demanded that the surfaces of the incision be brought in close contact, and 

 that all bacterial infection be prevented by the use of antiseptic dressings, 

 antiseptic solutions in the form of irrigations and sprayings, etc. Sir 

 Joseph Lister, of Scotland (1875), brought the use of disinfectants in sur- 

 gery to a high degree of perfection, and modern antiseptic surgery is 

 often designated "Listerism." The chief antiseptic of Lister and his fol- 

 lowers was carbolic acid, which was used for free wound irrigation and 

 general disinfection. He operated in a spray of carbolic acid solution. As 

 late as 1890 there was to be found an occasional lecturer in a college of 

 medicine who held out against the germ theory, and not a small number of 

 the eminent opponents mentioned in the previous period carried their 

 mistaken notions with them to the grave. 



The name of Robert Koch will stand throughout the ages as the leader 

 in modern bacteriological science. Early in life he was convinced of the 

 correctness of the germ theory of disease, but his first contributions to 

 bacteriological science awakened a storm of opposition . Billroth, of Vienna, 

 and others persisted in declaring that microbes were not causative of pus- 



