Transcript 1300s, 1600s Waves of Bubonic Plague

© 2001 by Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Early human interactions with
microbes
Early Plagues
What did people THINK was causing disease?
The Miasma Theory
• People thought
disease was spread
by “miasmas”, or
“bad quality of air”
Girolamo Fracastoro - 1546
• Named the disease syphilis in a poem
• Proposed disease could be transmitted
by minute particles in three ways:
• Air
• Fomites (inanimate objects)
• Direct contact
1300s, 1600s Waves of Bubonic Plague
Brueghel's 1562 work "The Triumph of Death."
Pieter the Elder Brueghel/The Bridgeman Art Library/Getty Images
1666 The Bubonic Plague
• In the village Eyam, 259 out of 350 died
from the plague
• 1/3 of the population of London died in
one wave of the plague
• The origin of a familiar nursery rhyme:
“Ring around the rosie”
Ring a ring of rosies
Referred to the rose shaped splotches
A pocket full of posies
A futile attempt to ward off “evil spirits”
Achoo! Achoo!
Indicated the fits of sneezing
We all fall down.
Death.
Village of Eyam
Village of Eyam
The Riley Graves
List of Plague victims 1665-1666
A. The Beginnings of
Microbiology
1665 Robert Hooke
• Published Micrographie, a collection of
observations of microbes
• described early microscopes
• included drawings of microscopic living
things
• coined the term “cells”
1674 Anton van Leeuwenhoek
• Made microscopes
that could magnify
objects over 200
times
• Viewed protozoans,
fungi, algae and
bacteria
• Called them
“animalcules”
B. The Transition Period
1600’s Spontaneous Generation
• The belief that rats, maggots, toads,
and other living things “arose” out of
lifeless objects
• For example: maggots were
spontaneously generated from rotten
meat
1670’s Francisco Redi - disputed
spontaneous generation
Other important discoveries:
• 1798 Edward Jenner - Discovered
vaccine for smallpox
• Mid 1800’s Semmelweis - Proved that
handwashing in chlorine water stopped
the spread of blood poisoning from
corpses to maternity patients by doctors
• Snow – Proved that chlorination of
water stopped cholera outbreaks
Map of
London
showing
Cholera
outbreaks
C. The Golden Age of
Microbiology
1857-Early 1900’s
Louis Pasteur - France
• Proved yeast had a role in wine
fermentation
• Suggested microorganisms could be the
cause of disease
• Pasteurization - heating to kill bacteria
• Disproved spontaneous generation by
using a swan-necked flask
• Created vaccines for anthrax and rabies
Robert Koch - Germany
• Isolated the anthrax bacterium
• Transmitted them to healthy mice and
induced the disease
• This led to Koch’s Postulates
• Discovered pure culture techniques on solid
media (Agar)
• Agar – a seaweed derived powder used to
solidify jams and jellies
• Fanny Hesse – introduced agar into the lab
1909 – Paul Ehrlich develops a drug to
cure syphillis
• Used chemicals to
kill bacteria
(Chemotherapy)
• The arsenic
compound was
named Salvarsan
• Known as a “Magic
Bullet” to cure
syphillis
1928- Alexander Fleming
Discovers Penicillin
• Mold grew in his
Petri dish of bacteria
• A “zone of inhibition”
surrounded the mold
• The mold extract
was called penicillin