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Throughout the 1870s, Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), a French chemist and microbiologist, put forth the concept of Germ Theory of Disease; that diseases were caused by microorganisms. This led to the search for "The Magic Bullet", or something that could kill the disease-causing organisms without harming the person that the organism was infecting. Pasteur's theory made it possible to isolate and treat specific diseases.
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The first cholera, anthrax, and rabies vaccines were developed from 1879 to 1882, greatly influenced by Louis Pasteur.
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Throughtout the 1880s, Joseph Lister (1827-1912), a British surgeon and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery, experimented with chemical means of preventing infection and achieved his first successful results with carbolic acid (phenol). Antiseptic surgery significantly decreased surgical morbidity.
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Emil von Behring discovers antitoxins and uses them to develop tetanus and diphtheria vaccines in 1890.
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German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X-rays in 1895.
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The first vaccines for typhoid fever and plague are developed from 1896-1897.
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Felix Hoffman synthesizes aspirin (acetyl salicylic acid); developing what is now one of the most widely used medicines in the world in 1899.
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In 1907 occurred the first successful human blood transfusion using Karl Landsteiner's ABO blood typing technique, which classifies the bloods of human beings into A, B, AB, and O groups.
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The first vaccines for diphtheria, whooping cough, tuberculosis, and tetanus were developed from 1923 to 1927.
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In September of 1928, Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) discovered penicillium mold infecting a dish with staphylococcus bacteria. Penicillin would eventually be considered by many to be “The Magic Bullet”, treating bacteria-caused diseases.