Spreading Germs: Disease Theories and Medical Practice in Britain, 1865-1900

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Cambridge University Press, Oct 16, 2000 - History - 327 pages
Spreading Germs discusses how modern ideas on the bacterial causes of communicable diseases were constructed and spread within the British medical profession in the last third of the nineteenth century. Michael Worboys surveys many existing interpretations of this pivotal moment in modern medicine. He shows that there were many germ theories of disease, and that these were developed and used in different ways across veterinary medicine, surgery, public health and general medicine. The growth of bacteriology is considered in relation to the evolution of medical practice rather than as a separate science of germs.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Medical Practice and Disease Theories c 1865
20
Veterinary Medicine the Cattle Plague and Contagion 18651890
43
Germs in the Air Surgeons Hospitalism and Sepsis 18651876
73
Sanitary Science Poisons and Contagium Viva 18661880
108
Deeper Than the Surface of the Wound Surgeons Antisepsis and Asepsis 18761900
150
From Heredity to Infection Tuberculosis Bacteriology and Medicine 18701900
193
Preventive Medicine and the Bacteriological Era
234
Conclusion
277
Select Bibliography
293
Index
317
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Page 306 - ESSAYS ON THE FLOATING MATTER OF THE AIR IN RELATION TO PUTREFACTION AND INFECTION.

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