APPLIED BACTERIOLOGY FOR NURSES 



GENERAL BACTERIOLOGY 



CHAPTER I 



HISTORIC 



The fact that many diseases are caused by tiny liv- 

 ing organism called bacteria is so universally accepted 

 nowadays that it is hard to realize our real knowledge 

 of bacteria is less than fifty years old. The discov- 

 ery of the relation between bacteria and disease has 

 revolutionized medical practice, and has resulted in 

 the saving of countless lives which formerly were lost. 



One of the earliest to form a fairly accurate conception 

 of the nature of infectious diseases was Fracastor, an 

 Italian scientist living in the sixteenth century. In 1546 

 he published an essay in which he likened disease to 

 putrefaction, and spoke of certain kinds of diseases as 

 being spread by "seeds." 



A little more than one hundred years later Leeuwen- 

 hoek, of Delft, Holland, succeeded in constructing a 

 strong magnifying glass by which he observed tiny, 

 living organisms in tartar scraped from the teeth, in 

 cheese, rain-water, decayed meat, feces, etc. And, 



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