2 MEDICAL BACTERIOLOGY 



transmitted from the dissecting room to patients by students' fingers, and to 

 curtail its occurrence advised students to wash their hands prior to making 

 vaginal examinations. For this innovation the elect ostracized him. 



In 1850 Rayer and Davine discovered a bacterium in the blood of animals 

 afflicted with splenic fever. Thirteen years later Davine disclosed the relation 

 of bacillus anthrax to splenic fever. 



Until this time microorganisms associated with putrefaction and disease had 

 been classified as worms or animal organisms; Robin, in 1853, classified them 

 with the genus leptothrix, as belonging to the algae. In 1859 Davine studied 

 the subject in a broader way than had been done before and insisted upon their 

 vegetable nature. Later Colm confirmed these contentions and bacteria have 

 since been generally considered as vegetable organisms. 



By the middle of the nineteenth century the belief in a relationship of bac- 

 teria to disease was beginning to affect medical thought, as evidenced in Henle's 

 "Text Book of Rational Pathology," published in 1853. Reinfleisch declared 

 wound infection was due to microbic invasion. In 1866, two years later, Walder 

 expressed the same belief. 



Regardless of the many observations, the collection of considerable evidence 

 and the presentation of many hypotheses, some of which were surprisingly 

 accurate, the true relationship of bacteria to life and disease was not appreciated 

 until after the publication, by Pasteur, in 1869, of the first complete study of a 

 contagious disease caused by microorganisms. To this man and the country 

 which produced him and facilitated his investigations, the world is indebted for 

 the study and presentation of the subject in such a way as to awaken general 

 interest, and bring forth untold blessings. 



About this same time Koch introduced the cultivation of bacteria on solid 

 culture media and in many ways greatly expanded the possibilities of bacterio- 

 logical studies. 



From that time on great discoveries followed rapidly, one after the other, 

 most of them arrived at after years of study and research, few by accident. 



In 1875, Lister inaugurated antiseptic surgery, an epoch in that art. 



Ehrlich and Weigert introduced staining methods for the study of bacteria 

 in 1877. In 1879 Frank began the study of the relationship of bacteria to the 

 growth of leguminous roots. 



The year 1884 may be considered the golden year of bacteriology; among 

 other advances made may be noted the discovery of the diphtheria bacillus by 

 Klebs and Loeffier, the pneumococcus by Fraenkel, the tetanus bacillus by 

 Nicolaier, Gaffky's extended studies of the typhoid bacillus (discovered four 

 years earlier by Eberth), the discovery by Pasteur of his method of immunizing 

 against rabies, and the discovery by Koch of the spirillum of cholera. 



A great stride forward was taken in 1890 when Behring introduced diphtheria 

 antitoxin. 



The discovery of the specific cause of syphilis by Schaudin in 1905, the intro- 

 duction of opsonic therapy by Wright in 1907, and the antimeningococcus serum 

 of Flexner, are but a few of the recent advances in this rapidly developing science. 



