BACTERIOLOGY 



AND 



INFECTIVE DISEASES. 



CHAPTER I. 







HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 



THE researches of Pasteur into the role played by bacteria in the 

 processes of fermentation and putrefaction, and the investigations of 

 the practical mind of Lister, with the resulting evolution of antiseptic 

 surgery, demonstrated the necessity for a more intimate acquaint- 

 ance with the life-history of these micro-organisms. Further re- 

 searches in diseases such as anthrax, the silkworm malady, pyaemia, 

 septicaemia, and fowl-cholera, invested the science of Bacteriology 

 with universal interest and vast importance; while the investiga- 

 tions which established an intimate connection between bacteria 

 and other infective diseases, and more especially the discovery by 

 Koch of bacteria in tuberculosis and in Asiatic cholera, claimed the 

 attention of the whole thinking world. 



Those bacteria which are connected with disease, and more 

 especially those which have been proved to be the causa causans, are 

 of predominant interest and importance. 



The first attempt to demonstrate the existence of a contagium 

 vivum dates back almost to the discovery of the microscope. 

 Athanasius Kircher, nearly two and a half centuries ago, expressed 

 his belief that there were definite micro-organisms to which diseases 

 were attributable. The microscope had revealed that all decom- 

 posing substances swarmed with countless micro-organisms which 

 were invisible to the naked eye, and Kircher sought for similar 

 organisms in diseases which he considered might be due to their 

 agency. The microscope which he described obviously could not 



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