The Discovery of the Germ

Breathtakingly rapid, the discovery that germs cause disease was both revolutionary and rich in human drama. John Waller describes the scientific virtuosity, outstanding intellectual courage and bitter personal rivalries that gave birth to this exceptional sea-change in scientific thinking.

---

20 incredible years that revolutionised our understanding of disease. From Hippocrates to Louis Pasteur, the medical profession relied on almost wholly mistaken ideas concerning infectious illness. Bleeding, purging and mysterious nostrums remained staple remedies. Surgeons, often wearing butcher's aprons caked in surgical detritus, blithely spread infection from patient to patient. Then, between 1879 and 1900, came the germ revolution. Scientific virtuosity, outstanding intellectual courage and bitter personal rivalries characterised this breathtaking rapid sea-change in scientific thinking.