HISTORICAL 



13 



to be somewhat antiseptic. John Colbach (1704) described a "new and 

 secret method of treating wounds by which healing took place without 

 inflammation or suppuration." 



From earliest time up to as late as i860, it was quite generally taught 

 that all normal healing of wounds and cuts must be preceded by pus-for- 

 mation. A "laudable pus" was recognized, the presence of which was 

 looked upon as a hopeful sign and indicated that repair was proceeding 

 favorably. If the laudable pus which was of a whitish creamy consist- 

 ency changed to a watery consistency, it was considered an unfavorable 

 sign. 



After Schwann and others had demonstrated that fermentation was due 

 to the presence of yeast cells, and it was proven conclusively that decay 

 was caused by bacteria, the relationship of bacteria to disease began to re- 

 ceive' consideration. Rayner and Devaine (1850) found bacterial rods in 

 animals suffering from splenic fever. As early as 1840 Henle, who is by 

 some considered the father of modern bacteriology, made some very 

 valuable deductions regarding the relationship of micro-organisms to dis- 

 ease. He recognized a "contagium" (the active cause of the disease 

 associated with micro-organisms) , which was supposed to be air-like and yet 

 at the same time fixed. It was supposed to retain its activity for years in 

 the dry state. An unweighable and unmeasurable quantity of this sub- 

 stance may cause an extensive epidemic. Air currents can carry the con- 

 tagium great distances and cause epidemics in widely separated areas. 

 Bassi (1835) declared that a fungus was the cause of the muscardine dis- 

 ease of silkworms. Pollender (1855) reported that bacteria caused anthrax, 

 verified by Devaine in 1863. Hallier, an enthusiast but not reliable as an 

 investigator, declared that scarlet fever, measles, typhus, and cholera were 

 caused by bacteria. His deductions were, however, not based upon scien- 

 tific research and proof. Rindfleisch (1866) and Waldeyer (1868) gave 

 considerable attention to wound infection, which, they declared, was due 

 to microbic invasion. In 1869 Pasteur demonstrated the microbic cause 

 of the silkworm disease which interfered very seriously with the silk 

 industry in France. Pasteur and Klebs demonstrated experimentally 

 that bacteria could be grown in artificial culture media, and Robert 

 Koch proved that the pathogenic microbes actually secreted the disease- 

 causing substance. This was demonstrated by transferring an infinitely 

 small quantity of the germ material from a diseased organ to a suitable 

 culture medium and making sub-cultures, until the last culture must con- 

 tain less than the trillionth part of the original substance. Nevertheless, 

 inoculations from the last culture developed the disease with full energy. 

 This experiment was made to meet the assertions that the cause of the dis- 

 ease did not reside in the bacterium, and that jthe bacterium, if present 



