Bacteriology : a review and an outlook : an inaugural lecture delivered before the University of Liverpool on Friday, December 6, 1912 / by J. M. Beattie.

  • James Martin Beattie
Date:
1913
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bacteriology : a review and an outlook : an inaugural lecture delivered before the University of Liverpool on Friday, December 6, 1912 / by J. M. Beattie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    And yet, bacteriology is not by any means a new subject, for between 1675 and 1683 Anthony von Leeuwenhock, by virtue of his perfectly-constructed lenses, first beheld bacteria and called them ‘animalcula.’ Not only did he see the organisms, but he recognised differences in their appearance and in their size, and, further, that they were present in various substances of animal origin. This dis- covery naturally gave a new interest to discussions which had taken place as to the relationship of disease to a living virus. With great epidemics of disease which devastated towns and cities and whole kingdoms, it would have been strange if there had been an absence of investigators—if everyone had obediently followed the dictum that it was the will of the gods, and, therefore, did not concern man. Fortunately, in every age, there has been at least one Thomas, and this man, or these men, found that disease spread from individual to individual, and that the isolation of the diseased person was a precaution necessary to stop the spread of an epidemic. Consequently we find in Biblical times, and even in old Babylonia, the establishment of isolation camps, and there are running through the writings suggestions at least that the outbreaks of disease were due to some living agent which could pass from person to person. About 1260, Theodoric in Bologna taught the first principles of antiseptic surgery. He pointed out that the action of the air on wounds pre- disposed to suppuration, and in order to lessen this risk he bathed his wounds with hot wine. Later, in 1306, Henri de Mondeville got even nearer to the present-day surgeon, for he emphasised the necessity of closely approximating the edges of a wound, and then, to prevent risk of infection from
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