Author: Robert Reid.
One of the most important and influential scientific theories of all time -the germ theory -was established in the quarter of a century after 1856. During this period bacteria which cause disease and death we re identified and soon cures or vaccines against them were developed. Medicine was revolutionised.
Many men of prodigious talent took part in this momentous transformation. The story shifts from country to country-from Jenner's rural practice in England to Pasteur's laboratories in the breweries and silk farms of France, and on to Koch's surgery in Prussia. The problems changed. At one point the interest centred on crystal chemistry, at another it was found to be vital to discover a solid rather than a liquid medium in which bacteria would multiply. As in so many cases of major scientific discovery, there were jealousies, rows and acts of petty selfishness. But there were also great strokes of luck, and acts of heroism as well as frightening setbacks.
It is a narrative as exciting as any novel. gut it is more than just that. Robert Reid is able to use the germ theory as a case-study in the methods and responsibilities of scientists. A great discovery may turn out to be a double-edged sword, yet the process of discovering ways to control nature must go on if a world saved from disease is not to see, instead, men dying of starvation.
Microbes and Men, which accompanies the television series on BBC-2, is a fascinating account of a heroic chapter in the history of ideas. Robert Reid has a growing reputation as an historian of science George Steiner has described him as belonging to 'that small group of science writers who can make their own fields and neighbouring disciplines come alive for the general reader'. This book will add to that reputation.
In the 1840's the Vienna General Hosp was one of the great centres of medicine, yet many mothers died of "child-bed fever". Ignaz Semmelweis set out to find the cause of this.
Of Louis Pasteur's 3 daughters, 2 died from typhoid, one from an inoperable tumour - a stark re-minder of the background to his struggle to find the cause of disease.
The 1870s. Ignorance & opposition to new medical ideas exist at all levels. Can Pasteur or Koch find a practical outcome of their experiments that will convince the sceptics?
On 6th July 1885 young Joseph Meister was brought to Pasteur's lab. He had been savaged by a rabid dog & death seemed certain, unless Pasteur would treat him with an untried vaccine.
1890: Germany is host to an international congress of doctors. Pressure is on Koch, working on a cure for tuberculosis, to produce results to surpass the French success with rabies.
At the turn of the century 2 men, one in London, the other in Frankfurt, were embarking on research which each hoped would provide the cures so sorely needed.