24 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA. 



III. MEDICAL AND SURGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS; THE 

 STUDY OF THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



Probably the first writing in which a direct relationship 

 between micro-organisms and disease is indicated is that 

 by Varro, which says : 



" It is also to be noticed, if there be any marshy places, 

 that certain minute animals breed [there] which are 

 invisible to the eye, and yet, getting into the system 

 through mouth and nostrils, cause serious disorders (dis- 

 eases which are difficult to treat) " — a doctrine which, as 

 Prof. L,amberton, to whom I am indebted for the extract, 

 points out, is handed down to us from u the days of 

 Cicero and Caesar, ' ' yet corresponds closely to the ideas 

 of malaria which we entertain at present. 



Surgical methods of treatment depending for their suc- 

 cess upon exclusion of the air, and of course, incidentally 

 if unknowingly, exclusion of bacteria, seem to have been 

 practised quite early. Theodoric of Bologne about 1260 

 taught that the action of the air upon wounds induced a 

 pathologic condition predisposing to suppuration. He 

 also treated wounds with hot wine fomentations. The 

 wine was feebly antiseptic, kept the surface free from bac- 

 teria, and the treatment was, in consequence, a modifica- 

 tion of what in later centuries formed antiseptic surgery. 



Henri de Mondeville in 1306 went even further than 

 Theodoric, whom he followed, and taught the necessity 

 of bringing the edges of a wound together, covered it 

 with an exclusive plaster compounded of turpentine, 

 resin, and wax, and then applied the hot wine fomenta- 

 tion. 



In 1671 Kircher wrote a book in which he expressed 

 the opinion that puerperal purpura, measles, and various 

 other fevers were the result of a putrefaction caused by 

 worms or animalculse. His opinions were thought by his 

 contemporaries to be founded upon too little evidence, 

 and were not received. 



Plencig of Vienna became convinced that there was an 

 undoubted connection between the microscopic animal- 



