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Between the 1860s and the 1880s, Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch showed that many diseases are caused by microbes, living things too small to see, such as bacteria. This germ theory taught doctors to clean their hands and sterilise their instruments, and cities to protect their drinking water.

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For centuries many doctors blamed disease on miasma, “bad air” rising from filth. There were clues against it even before Pasteur and Koch. In 1847 Ignaz Semmelweis cut deaths among new mothers in a Vienna hospital by making doctors who came straight from dissecting bodies wash their hands in chlorinated lime, a bleaching disinfectant, and in 1854 John Snow traced a London cholera outbreak to a single water pump. Pasteur's experiments with swan-necked flasks showed that broth stays fresh unless microbes from the air reach it. The surgeon Joseph Lister read his work and in 1865 began cleaning wounds with carbolic acid to kill germs, the start of antiseptic surgery. Robert Koch then identified the bacteria behind anthrax in 1876 and tuberculosis in 1882. Vaccination is older: Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccine dates from 1796.

Türkçe oku
1860'larla 1880'ler arasında Louis Pasteur ve Robert Koch, pek çok hastalığa gözle görülemeyecek kadar küçük canlıların, yani bakteri gibi mikropların yol açtığını gösterdi. Mikrop teorisi denen bu görüş sayesinde doktorlar ellerini yıkamayı ve aletlerini sterilize etmeyi, şehirler de içme sularını temiz tutmayı öğrendi.

Yüzyıllar boyunca pek çok hekim hastalıkları miazmaya, yani pislikten yükselen “kötü hava”ya bağladı. Ama bu görüşü sarsan ipuçları Pasteur ve Koch'tan önce de vardı. 1847'de Viyana'daki bir hastanede Ignaz Semmelweis, otopsiden doğrudan doğumhaneye gelen doktorlara ellerini ağartıcı bir dezenfektan olan kireç kaymağıyla yıkattı ve lohusa ölümlerini büyük ölçüde azalttı. 1854'te John Snow, Londra'daki bir kolera salgınının kaynağının tek bir su pompası olduğunu ortaya koydu. Pasteur, ağzı kuğu boynu gibi kıvrık şişelerle yaptığı deneylerde, havadaki mikroplar ulaşmadıkça et suyunun bozulmadığını gösterdi. Onun çalışmalarını okuyan cerrah Joseph Lister, 1865'te mikropları öldürmek için yaraları karbolik asitle temizlemeye başladı; antiseptik cerrahi böyle doğdu. Robert Koch da 1876'da şarbona, 1882'de de vereme yol açan bakteriyi buldu. Aşı ise daha eskidir: Edward Jenner'ın çiçek aşısı 1796'ya dayanır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Germ theory of disease
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