The Discovery of Germs Flashcards
What invention first identified microbes and when?
The Microscope in 1677, made by Robert Hooke
What was Francesco Redi’s experiment?
In 1699 he boiled water and sealed it. No microbes appeared and he concluded that microbes came from the outside.
Why was Redi’s experiment dismissed?
Others repeated the experiment using contaminated equipment.
What is Spontaneous Generation?
Theory that microbes came from nowhere.
What is Specificity?
Idea that not all microbes are the same. Confirmed by Agostino Bassi in 1935. He found germ causing muscardine disease in silk worms.
What did anticontagonists believe?
That the solution to epidemics in cities was to clean up the environment.
What did Contagionists believe?
Epidemics could be controlled by quarantine and preventing contact. Illness was caused by spread of bacteria.
Who did the Swan neck flask test?
Louis Pasteur
What did the Swan neck flask test prove?
- Germs could not come alive by themselves
- That they could be found almost anywhere
- That they infected things, causing them to turn bad.
When was Germ Theory published?
1861
Why was Beale’s work on Cattle Plague important?
It linked germ theory to a specific disease.
