The Discovery Of Rabies Vaccinations

Dr. Gawande 's demonstration of diligence was expressed from his study of the 19th century Vienna on the importance of hand-washing, the care taken to save the wounded in Afghanistan and the drive to eliminate the Poliovirus in India. The task of washing your hands may seem so tedious to some but Dr. Gawande explained the significance in patient care as a prevention of becoming carriers of bacteria. In 1847, a Viennese obstetrician, Ignac Semmelweis was one of the first to realize that doctors were the ones transmitting Steptococcus to mothers and babies during childbirth. This led to what was called "childbed fever" also known as puerperal fever which was a leading cause for maternal death during childbirth. Dr. Semmelweis

Pasteur’s pamphlet would have prevented the spread the bacteria if the midwives would have washed their hands and boiled their instruments.

The germ theory was proposed by Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur in the 1870s, on the basis that microorganisms were the cause of many diseases.

In 1854 Louis Pasteur became a professor of chemistry at Lille. Shortly after, he became interested in fermentation. This was very helpful since alcohol making was a huge industry there. His interest in fermentation resulted in Louis developing many other interests. “In 1857 he jumped around from chemistry, biology then to medicine (Miller, 2002).” In 1860 he discovered pasteurization to kill bacteria in many food and beverages. This made a huge impact on the world. With pasteurization there would now be fewer illnesses due to people ingesting bacteria and parasites.

Dr. John Snow was known as an intelligent physician who had a background with anesthesia advancements. He believed that cholera was a waterborne disease and that it was contaminated by the sewage. Snow’s goal was to convince others about the issue and stop it from spreading. His theory about the intestinal disease, in which was published in 1849 in an article, was laughed at and many doctors believed that his idea was “wrong” and they continued to believe that it was airborne. He wanted to prove many wrong and begin to further research and experiment the disease.

“Louis Pasteur – Germ Theory of Disease” Inventors About. Com. 2014. Retrieved on January 13 2014 from Biography.com: http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventors/a/Louis_Pasteur.htm

He always took a scientific approach to everything but he didn 't see it as such. He wasn 't aware the he was inventing. He was just trying to figure out solutions to his problems. During His first experiment he didn 't even realize that he would be labeled as an inventor. Again, he was just finding a solution to anything that

Trying to understand these hypotheses, and motivated by his religious principles, he then discovered the germ theory. It didn’t start with a whole theory in the beginning. At first, he was studying the diseases of milk and vinegar, which led him to show

The Black Death ushered in a need for practical medicine. Understanding the cycle of germs, the need of controlling human contact, and the lessons of sanitation and proper handling of disease and materials would prove valuable lessons of the plague. Guy De Chauliac, the

The theory that fevers were produced by putrid air entering the body’s system was not originally formed by Rush. It was formed by the English physician Thomas Sydenham. Through his observations, Sydenham theorized that diseases formed from vapors that tainted the atmosphere. He writes that these vapors produced particles that were detrimental to the human body. As the vapors are breathed in, the particles would enter the body and become mixed with the blood. This is interaction was the basis for the cause of epidemics.

The concept of vaccines, basically exposure to a disease to trick the body into forming immunity, has been controversial from its beginnings. The history of vaccines began in 1796 with Edward Jenner, a doctor from England, who performed the first immunization (Alexandra, Markel, 2005). Edward Jenner showed that a certain level of immunity could be accomplished by dosing patients with cowpox, which is a close relative of smallpox (Alexandra, Markel, 2005). He then tried, without success, to infect that same

Epidemics of the 19th century were faced without the improved medical technologies that made the 20th and 21st-century epidemics rare and less lethal. It was in the 18th century that micro-organisms (viruses and bacteria) were discovered, but it was not until the late 19th century that the experiments of Lazzaro Spallanzani and Louis Pasteur disagreed with the spontaneous generation argument conclusively, crediting the germ theory and Robert Koch 's discovery of micro-organisms as the cause of disease transmission. Therefore, throughout the majority of the 19th century, there was only the most basic, understanding of the causes, amelioration and treatment of epidemic disease.

North’s paper exhibits a snapshot of his present, the two contain several parallels. The Cholera Years presents several scientific theories as to cholera’s cause that received traction in the medical world. Surprisingly, North’s account of cholera’s causes avoids the inclusion of a personal theory but relies on citing a variety of professional findings. For example, both North and Rosenberg cite Dr. Snow as a researcher focused on the matter of cholera, whose theory promoted cholera as transmissible through contaminated drinking water. North continued his discussion of contagion by citing other doctors such as Copeland, Watson, Britton, and Swayne, with each positing a slightly different angle to gain a more complete picture of cholera as a contagion (North 13-16). Rosenberg also produced a broad discussion on the status of cholera as a contagion with the works of sanitarians, such as Max von Pettenkofer, and foreign physicians, such as Dr. William Budd (Rosenberg 195-196). As a historian, Rosenberg includes broad strokes of this time period, which results in descriptions of theories opposed to the contagion theory. As such, Rosenberg notes the position of individuals such as John Griscom, Edwin Snow, and Henry Clark, who all spent their lives focusing on filth as the major cause of epidemics (Rosenberg 196). North generated a similar

Edward created the world’s first vaccine by doing a extremely daring experiment with a chance of a child dying according to

One of the prominent men behind the germ theory was Robert Koch, a German physician, who laid the foundation for the theory. Koch experimented on animals because he noticed what most people saw as a mystery. He used a microscope to look at blood that belonged to cows that died of anthrax. Koch discovered that there were tiny bacteria shaped like a rod and supposed that it was a disease called anthrax. Out of curiosity, he transported the bacteria to mice, which also acquired anthrax. His observation of the transportation of anthrax led Koch to create the four standards that determines that a certain germ can cause a specific disease. Koch’s criterion famously known as Koch’s Postulates and are still commonly used. His third postulate is, “the disease must be reproduced when a pure culture is inoculated into a healthy, susceptible host.” In other words, a disease is able to multiply when a clean group of germs introduces itself to a vulnerable animal to house the germs. Robert Koch launched the germ theory for other great minds to enhance by discovering a disease and creating a set of principles.