Pathogenic micro-organisms : including bacteria and Protozoa; a practical manual for students, physicians and health officers / by William Hallock Park ; assisted by Anna W. Williams.
- William Hallock Park
- Date:
- 1908
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Pathogenic micro-organisms : including bacteria and Protozoa; a practical manual for students, physicians and health officers / by William Hallock Park ; assisted by Anna W. Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![FA TJIOGKNW MICRO-OliGANIRMH. Pi’obably the first aiitliontic olrscrvations of liviiifr inierosoopic organisms of wliicli tlierc is any record are tliose of Kircher, in 1051), This original investigator demonstrated tlie ])resence in putrid meat, milk, vinegar, cheese, etc., of ‘^minute living worms,” hut did not describe their form or character. ISTot long after this, in 1675, Leeuwenhoeck ol)served in rain-water, putrid infusions, and in his own and other saliva and diarrhmal evac- uations living, motile animalcnhe ” of most minute dimensions, which he described and illustrated by drawings. I^euwenlioeck practised the art of lens-grinding, in which he eventually became so proficient that he perfected a lens superior to any magnifying glass obtainable at that day, and with which he was enabled to see olpects very much smaller than had ever been seen before. “ With the great- est astonishment,” he writes, I observed distributed everywhere through the material which I was examining animalcules of the most microscopic size, which moved themselves about very energetically.” The work of this observer is conspicuous for its purely objective char- acter and absence of speculation; and his descriptions and illustra- tions are done with remarkable clearness and accuracy, considering the imperfect optical instruments at his command. It was not until many years later, however, that any attempt was made to define the characters of these minute organisms and to classify them svstematicallv. From the earliest investigations into the life history and properties of bacteria microorganisms have been thought to play an important part in the causation of infectious diseases. Shortly after the first investigations into this subject the opinion was advanced that puer- peral fever, measles, smallpox, typhus, pleurisy, epilepsy, gout, and many other diseases were due to contagion. In fact, so widespread became the belief in a causal relation of these minute organisms to disease that it soon amounted to a veritable craze, and all forms and kinds of diseases Avere said to be produced in this way, u]X)n no other foundation than that these organisms had been found in the mouth and intestinal contents of men and animals, and in Avater. Among those aaIio Avere es]Aecially conspicuous at this time for their advanced aucavs on the germ-theory of infectious diseases Avas ^larcus Antonius Plenciz, a physician of Vienna. This acute observer, aaIio published his views in 1762, maintained tliat not only AA'ore all infec- tious diseases caused by microorganisms, hut tliat the iufectiA'e mate- rial could be nothing else than a living organism. Ou tliese grounds he endeavored to explain the variations in the ix'riod of incubation of the different infectious diseases. He also insisted tliat tliere aa'ci’c special germs for eacli infectious disease by Avhicli the specific disease Avas produced. Pleuciz Indievcd, moreover, that these organisms Avere capaiile of miilti])lication in tbe body, and suggested the jiossibility of their being coma'yed from ]ilace to ])hice tbrough tlie air. Tliese views, it is true, were largely s]ieeulatiA’o, and rested ipAon insufficient exjieriment; but they Avere so ]ilausible, and the arguments](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28137541_0020.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
