HISTORICAL SKETCH 5 



had been both physiological and structural, and it is on the 

 foundation which they laid that the science in its modern 

 form has been built up. For the fundamental labors of the 

 earlier years, the student is referred to Loffler's lectures on 

 the history of bacteriology. 8 



The first important work in bacteriology was the estab- 

 lishment by Pasteur of the relation of bacteria to fermen- 

 tation. This was followed by demonstrating the "Germ 

 theory" of disease first suggested by Henle in 1821. The 

 introduction of cotton plugs to remove bacteria from air by 

 Schroeder and von Dusch in 1854 ; the sterilization of culture 

 media by heat, perfected by Pasteur, Koch and others ; the 

 demonstration of the transmissibility by inoculation of an- 

 thrax by Davaine (1863) and of tuberculosis by Villemin 

 (1865) ; the application in surgery of germicidal substances 

 by Sir Joseph Lister, in 1875 ; the publication of the work on 

 wound infectious diseases by Koch in 1878 ; the introduction 

 of the aniline dyes for staining bacteria by Weigert in 1877; 

 and the introduction of solid culture media by Koch in 1881, 

 are among the more important of the early discoveries in 

 bacteriology. 



The first observers, Miiller, Ehrenberg and Dujardin, 

 regarded bacteria as part of the animal kingdom. The mo- 

 tility of some known species was, in their opinion, a char- 

 acteristic which the plant kingdom must necessarily lack. 

 Later, when Davaine had proved, from his study of the bac- 

 teria of anthrax, the absolute immotility of certain species 

 in the whole cycle of their existence, species which could in 

 no other way be distinguished from their neighbors, ideas on 

 the subject of bacteria underwent a complete change. 

 Davaine 9 placed the Algae in the class with the Oscillaria, 

 and included in it the Beggiatoas or Sulfurairer. Raben- 



8 Loffler. Vorlesungen tiber die geschichtliche Entwickelung der 

 Lehre von den Bakterien. Part I, up to the year 1878 (all that has 

 appeared), Leipzig 1887. 



y Davaine. Recherches sur les Vibrioniens (C. R. de 1'Acad. des 

 Sc., 1864). Voy aussi 'TOeuvre de Davaine." 



