1878: Germ theory - The book of science

Germ theory
Pasteurization
Cayenne
Commentary

Germ theory

At the time, people thought
that maggots and microbes
were caused by miasmas,
poisons floating in the air.
In a sequence of amazing experiments,
Louis Pasteur, French chemist,
demonstrated that living microbes
caused fermentation, putrefaction,
and infection, thereby establishing
new ways of thinking about bad smells.

Pasteurization

Pasteur saved the French silk worm
by finding the parasite that infected it,
improved French wine by teaching vintners
how to prevent souring with heat treatments,
and showed that vaccinations were effective
against anthrax in French sheep
and against rabies in French people.
Today, in America,
we want our milk sterilized
and our wine au naturel. Of course,
some people
want their milk raw and their wine cooked.
Maybe we can understand
a lack of appreciation
for the subtleties of aging wine,
but not an ignorance of the effects of germs.
How can anyone so lack
suspicion of things that cling
to the udders of cows?
Today the French silk industry has succumbed
from other causes,
but vaccinations of humans, pets, and other animals
are much in demand for a variety of diseases—
chickenpox, cholera, diphtheria, hepatitis A and B,
influenza measles, meningitis, mumps,
papillomavirus, pertusis, polio, rabies, rubella,
smallpox, tetanus, tuberculosis, typhoid,
varicella, and yellow fever.
If a body were never exposed,
it wouldn’t develop defenses
against the conditions that we encounter
in everyday existence.
Birds defecate in trees;
animals urinate on ivy;
bugs crawl over dirt and onto lettuce;
flies breed in dung before walking on the back of your neck.
More bacteria can thrive
on the toe of a cockroach
than angels who dance on the head of a pin.
It is no great wonder
if we do not dare to eat a peach
or remove our shoes to walk in the sand.
Our culture in American
is overly protective,
but we cannot calm incapacitating fears
of bugs, grubs, worms, and spiders
with our antiseptic mouthwashes, disinfectant lotions,
antibacterial sprays, germicidal soaps,
surgical masks in subways, chloramine in tap water,
insecticides, and fungicides.
No wonder that some parents fear
that subjecting their children
to a barrage of innoculations
would not be innocuous.

Cayenne

In Somalia,
teaching hygene to tribal children,
the health worker needs to convince them
that things they cannot see
can yet harm them,
so the trick is to put
a little cayenne in a small bowl,
have them rub a finger in it and wipe it off
until it is all gone,
then ask
if they would touch the finger to an eye—
No, no, no, no!

According to the United Nations, improving sanitation reduces cholera, worms, diarrhoea, pneumonia, malnutrition, and other maladies that cause disease and the death of millions of people. In 2008, a child died every 20 seconds because of poor sanitation. Improving sanitation for a people improves their economy, their dignity and social development, and their environment.

The developed world has overused antimicrobial agents, breeding drug-resistant microbes to the point where it is barely able to sterilize hospital operating rooms. And we have no cure for herpes or dengue fever.

Microorganisms (bacteria, fungi including yeast, algae, protozoa, rotifers planarians, and virus) are not all bad; they also ferment our beer and wine and give our cheese and yogurt their distinctive tastes and textures. The Rhizobium bacteria convert nitrogen to a form that can be used by plants. The Penicillium fungi gave us our first anibiotic to combat harmful microbes.

1878 Germ theory

The book of science

Germ theory

Pasteurization

Cayenne