The Principles of Germ Theory
Night air causes disease.
Now, some of you may be wondering what night air is while others are most likely questioning the legitimacy of this statement. For the former, night air is essentially a cloud of poisonous gas and people believed that this lethal cloud is what caused most, if not all, diseases. And for the latter, well you’re right. Night air does not cause disease but this theory, otherwise known as Miasma theory was widely accepted in 1800s in medical communities and society in general.
Let’s travel back in time to the 1840s in London where Cholera was sweeping the city. Some scientists had grown skeptical and proposed an alternative theory as to why and how diseases were transmissible. These scientists were able to use microscopes to find tiny microorganisms and they believed that it was these germs that caused diseases. As you can probably guess, the medical community and people in general were strongly against this so called “Germ Theory.” However, scientists were determined to prove their point and so they began compiling tons of data to support their claims.
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Dr. John Snow, in particular, was a huge advocate of germ theory. His research mainly involved studying the spread of Cholera. His initial hypothesis was that, since Cholera infected patients presented with abdominal symptoms, this disease must be related to contaminated food and/or water resources. When the Cholera outbreak began in the SoHo district near his home he began to analyze the infected patients and their demographics. Dr. Snow’s results indicated that a majority of the infected patients lived around one specific water pump. Based on his findings, he immediately suggested shutting the pump down to minimize the spread of the disease. However, since germ theory was not widely accepted, he claimed that the water pump was poisoned. Thankfully, government officials agreed to shut down the water pump and the rate of infection drastically decreased. Determined to prove that the disease was caused by germs (and not poison), Dr. Snow gathered even more data. However, when he presented his findings to London government officials they refused and stood by the Miasma theory which was thousands of years old.
Eventually, in 1884, Dr. Robert Koch proved that Dr. John Snow’s initial theory was correct. Dr. Koch was able to isolate the bacteria that caused Cholera and through a series of experiments it was evident that Cholera was caused by a specific bacteria and not a cloud of poisonous vapor in the air.
Other Contributions to Germ Theory: Scientist, Louis Pasteur’s studies of microorganisms which led to the development of the world’s first vaccines.*
*written by Sweksha Mehta
