History of Bacteriology

Why do parasites harm their host? The persistence of this question in the history of the life sciences rests partly on a seeming biological paradox. In effect, although the annihilation of the host by a parasite could be depicted as a crude example of “the survival of the fittest,” situations where the host dies rapidly often amount to a pyrrhic
victory because parasitic colonies harboured within it may die as well before the transmission stage. So why would natural selection favour high virulence if this results in both the host’s and the pathogen’s deaths? From the last quarter of the nineteenth century to the
late 1970s, it was often considered that, all else being equal, pathogen’s evolution towards harmlessness was the expected outcome of long-term biological associations, as it would ensure the survival of both species. Frequently dismissed today as naively adaptationist, this perspective was however widely defended by some of those who pioneered an ecological, even evolutionary view of disease in the early-twentieth century, and was often ascribed to
American bacteriologist and comparative pathologist Theobald Smith (1859-1934). Since the early 1980s, the mathematical model of the trade-off – based on the idea that pathogens face several compromises between their mode of transmission, the level of virulence, and the cost of resistance – has challenged the assumed tendency towards harmlessness and has gained currency. This paper first analyzes Theobald Smith’s conception of disease, his experimental work on Texas cattle fever, and his formulation of the “law of declining virulence.” The following sections then trace the legacy of this model of disease evolution from circa 1900 to its widespread acceptance in the mid-twentieth century and until its
downfall in the 1980s. Particular attention is given to the case of the myxoma virus and how it acted as an empirical confirmation of Smith’s model in the 1950s. Finally, the paper examines both significant empirical and theoretical challenges to the avirulence model. The
present study not only fills a gap in the history of disease transmission and ecology but also sheds light on the intermingled relationship between bacteriology, evolutionary biology, and public health in the past century.

This chapter is devoted to the study of famous late nineteenth-century hospitals, highlighting the limitations of medical science. Showcased is the Eppendorf General Hospital in Hamburg during the 1892 outbreak of cholera in that port city. Considered a model for the world, the recently completed pavilion-style complex had a capacity of nearly 1,300 beds distributed over 200 wards. When cholera struck in the late summer and the number of sufferers soared, this municipal institution became a prominent recipient of cases urgently in need of isolation and treatment. Based on medical records, institutional sources, and journalistic accounts, the story is told in detail by following a typical patient, Erika W., an adult woman collapsing in a squalid tenement neighborhood of the city and taken to the institution. Under threat of cholera outbreaks in the 1880s, a section discusses the planning and construction of the Eppendorf General. A sketch of contemporary bacteriological views concerning cholera’s etiological agent follows, based on research pioneered by the prominent medical scientist Robert Koch. While the Eppendorf lacked academic affiliations, its leaders attempted to stress the importance of clinical research, but physicians and nurses remained in short supply during the emergency. A conclusion discusses the hospital’s mediocre performance at the dawn of the bacteriological age, ambushed by a fast killing contagion, organizational snags, staff deficiencies, and inadequate medical treatments.

Frederick Griffith (1879-1941) was an English bacteriologist at the Pathological Laboratory of the Ministry of Health in London in the first three decades of the 20th century, who believed that progress in the epidemiology and control of infectious diseases would come only with more precise knowledge of the identity of the causative microorganisms. Over the years, Griffith developed and expanded a serological technique for identifying pathogenic microorganisms, which allowed the tracing of the sources of infectious disease outbreaks: slide agglutination. Yet Griffith is not remembered for his contributions to the biology and epidemiology of infectious diseases so much as for discovering the phenomenon known as 'transformation'. Griffith’s discovery, for many, was a pure case of serendipity whose biological relevance had also largely escaped him. In this paper, I argue that the key to understanding the significance of bacterial transformation – and the scientific legacy of Fred Griffith – rests not only on it initiating a cascade of events leading to molecular genetics but also on its implications for epidemiology based on the biology of host-parasite interactions. Looking at Griffith’s entire career, instead of focusing only on the transformation paper, we can better appreciate the place of the latter within Griffith’s overall contributions. Presented in this way, Griffith’s experiment on bacterial transformation also ceases to appear as an 'anomaly', which in turn leads us to rethink some of the most prevalent historical conceptions about his work.

The continual emergence of new pathogens and the increased spread of antibiotic resistance in bacterial populations remind us that microbes are living entities that evolve at rates that impact public health interventions. Following the historical thread of the works of Pasteur and Darwin shows how reconciling clinical microbiology, ecology, and evolution can be instrumental to understanding pathology, developing new therapies, and prolonging the efficiency of existing ones.

Com base na trajetória de Rudolf Kraus,
o artigo analisa a busca de curas para
doenças infecciosas em regiões tropicais
no início do século XX, dando especial
atenção à elaboração por Kraus de
novos terapêuticos biológicos como
soros, vacinas e soluções proteicas. As
regiões tropicais eram com frequência
apresentadas como mais propícias à
pesquisa devido à maior quantidade
de organismos a identificar e também
à concorrência supostamente menor
entre pares. Os trópicos eram, assim,
considerados um oásis para as pesquisas
microbiológicas. Kraus dedicou-se à
fabricação de diversos produtos de
origem biológica, mas não teve o sucesso
esperado com muitos deles.

ABSTRACT This essay explores Baltimore’s post Civil War deplorable sanitary conditions caused by an unprecedented influx of newcomers. With the advent of bacteriology, prevalent contagious diseases such as diphtheria, scarlet fever and typhoid acquired new scientific dimensions including their prevention. Among those agitating for sanitary infrastructure was William Osler, then professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University. The paper follows his efforts to prevent typhoid fever in the city as well as foster bacteriological studies and improve the clinical management of the disease

Yüzyıllar boyunca zaman zaman tekrarlayan, yavaş yavaş yayılıp bir ara şiddetlenen, bir süre söndükten sonra yeniden salgın yapan bulaşıcı hastalıklar tarih boyunca in-san hayatının bir parçasıydı. Çiçek ve hıyarcıklı veba gibi hemen bulaşan, hızla yayılan, ürkütücü biçimde ölüme yol açarak insan nüfusunu kırıp geçiren bazı hastalıkların etkenleri tanınmasa da bulaşıcılıkları biliniyordu. Cüzzam ve frengi gibi yavaş ilerleyen, yıllarca kalıcı ola-bilen, mağdurlarını yaşayan ölülere dönüştüren kronik bazı hastalıkların da bulaştığı biliniyordu. Mesela, bulaşıcı olduğu bilinen cüzzam hastalığına yakalananların toplum ile temaslarının kesilmesi amacıyla cüzzamlı evlerinde tecrit edilmeleri, hasta ile sağlıklı insan tema-sının kesildiği en eski tecrit kurumu olarak tüm dünyada mevcuttu. Selçuklu ve Osmanlı döneminde de cüzzam hastalığının bulaşıcı olduğu biliniyor ve şehir dışlarına yaptırılan cüzzamhanelerde hastalar tecrit ediliyordu. Cüzzamlı aileler topluma karışmaz, tekke sakinleri gibi münzevi bir ömür sürerdi. Sultan II. Beyazıt ve Kanuni Sultan Süleyman cüzzam hastalarının halk arasına karışmasını yasaklamıştı. Cüzzam hastalarının şehir dışında iskân ettirilmesiyle halk korunur, tedavisi olmadığından (kabil-i ilâç değildir) kopup düşen el ve ayak parmakları ve açık yaralarıyla cüzzamlıların korkutucu görünümlerinin başkalarınca gözlenmesi de engellenmiş olurdu. Tıp 19'uncu yüzyılda bilim ile kucaklaşmadan önce bütün dünyada olduğu gibi Osmanlılar da gözle görülemeyen bazı canlıların bulaşıcı salgın hastalıklara neden olduğundan haberdar değildi. Salgın yapan hastalıkların bulaşıcı olduğu bilinse de bulaşma yolları bilinmiyor, hastalıklar pis havaya atfediliyordu. Tedavileri de yoktu. Hastalıkların yayılımını önleme, hiç olmazsa azaltma çabasıyla Osmanlı Devleti XIX. yüzyılda sağlık alanında teşkilatlanmaya, yeni sağlık kurumları açmaya ve yasal düzenlemeler yapmaya başladı. Tüm dünyayı etkileyen -pandemi yapan- bulaşıcı salgın hastalıklara karşı Avrupa' da alınan önlemlerin Osmanlı topraklarında uygulanmasıyla ilgili çalışmaların idari merkezi devletin başkenti olan İstanbul şehriydi.

Knowledge does not travel on its own. Bacteriology's laboratory practice depended on comprehensive logistics to be mobilized. Katharina Kreuder-Sonnen follows Polish physicians in their efforts to make microbes travel. Inscriptions of laboratory techniques and the mobilization of laboratory devices were important tools in this process. The history of circulating bacteriological knowledge connects Polish doctors with research institutions from Berlin to Tunis, integrates them into a global history of knowledge and leads us to rethink the categories of center and periphery. At the same time, the study tells us the story of how bacteriological knowledge was introduced to medical practice, first in the Kingdom of Poland and then in the Polish state founded in 1918 – a story which can only be encompassed by taking the practices and materialities of bacteriological laboratory practices into account

Paul Frosch (1860-1928) was a German bacteriologist and pioneer of animal virology. He worked at the Institute for Infectious Diseases in Berlin as close co-worker of Robert Koch, the leading figure of medical bacteriology, and became later appointed professor at the veterinary school in Berlin. Based on a study on typhoid, Frosch introduced the term ‘infection carrier’ for infected persons without manifest symptoms, and emphasized the role they played in spreading the epidemic. The concept subsequently became the cornerstone of epidemic control for a variety of infectious diseases in Germany. In 1898, Frosch pioneered virus research when he described the etiological agent of the foot-and-mouth disease together with Friedrich Loeffler, characterizing it as an ultravisible, filterable substance.

Dr. Silvia Berger, Universität Zürich, über den Beginn staatlicher Gesundheitsfürsorge im 19. Jahrhundert, Robert Koch, die Grippe-Pandemie 1918/19, sowie den Begriff des "Virus". Angesichts seiner Übertragung auf technische (Computer) und gesellschaftliche Sachverhalte spricht sie vom Virus als einer "Leitmetapher" unserer Gegenwart. Ihr neuestes Buch: Bakterien in Krieg und Frieden. Eine Geschichte der medizinischen Bakteriologie in Deutschland, 1890-1933, Göttingen: Wallstein 2009.

This article examines the emergence of postal pathology in Britain from around 1895 onwards. It focuses on the impact of laboratory-centred diagnostic practices on the working experiences and practices of medical and laboratory practitioners, Post Office (PO) management and PO workers as they operated within the medical marketplace. It demonstrates the critical role the PO played in facilitating the growth of remote laboratory diagnosis. Whilst primarily focussing on the idea of postal pathology as denoting a set of material practices and exchanges that took place between the PO, clinicians and laboratories for the purposes of diagnosing disease, it also hints at the ways in which the PO has at various points in its history itself been pathologised and made subject to new prophylactic regimens to protect against disease transmission. Through studying the issues that arose with the circulation of pathological specimens, this work touches upon several themes that help us to better understand the challenges historical actors encountered when working with such potentially dangerous material on a regular basis. Previously underutilised sources such as laboratory manuals, medical diaries and PO archival records will help to reconstruct the working experiences of medical practitioners, laboratory workers and PO workers. By doing so, we can begin to gain a better understanding of how diverging epidemiologies of infectious diseases emerged as historical actors worked to successfully navigate the demands of their respective workplaces at a time when pathological specimens became increasingly ubiquitous, mobile commodities.

Page 1. Swimming against the Tide Adrianus Pijper and the Debate over Bacterial Flagella, 1946-1956 By James Strick* I think everybody should explain his own artefacts. I deal with living material, and that should be the leading principle. ... Adrianus Pijper (1949) ...