BRIEF HISTORY OF BACTERIOLOGY. 



we wear,in the dust we tread beneath our feet, 

 and that they may be found any place where 

 dust settles. It had long been contended that 

 the processes of fermentation and putrefaction 

 were purely chemical processes and not the 

 work of micro-organisms. It was proven also 

 through the experiments of Pasteur that the 

 reproduction of bacteria takes place by pro- 

 cesses similar to those which cause the repro- 

 duction of larger vegetable or plant life and not 

 by spontaneous generation. Many other im- 

 portant discoveries are credited to the experi- 

 ments of Pasteur. In fact, some scientific men 

 of the present day go so far as to say that the 

 real history of bacteriology dates no farther 

 back than to the experiments and discoveries of 

 Pasteur ; that while it was not he who first dis- 

 covered the existence of germ life, nor who first 

 studied bacteria, nor who first suggested their 

 connection with fermentative processes and 

 with diseases, yet it is to his experiments we 

 owe the placing of bacteriological study upon a Errors 

 firm basis, and that all the history of micro- Lessened by 

 organisms which antedates the experiments and 

 discoveries of Pasteur is merely theoretical, 

 more likely to be erroneous than otherwise. 



In 1872 Klebs began to teach that general 

 sepsis is caused by bacteria invading the blood. 

 Klebs is of German birth; he was born in 



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