The History of the Germ Theory of Disease

Anton van Leeuwenhoek

Oct 24, 1632

-Anton Wan Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch cloth sales man
-skilled at building microscopes
-able to magnify objects over 200 times

Robert Hooke

Jul 28, 1635

-an english scientist
-wrote a book called Micrographia meaning "tiny drawings"
-he believed that good science resulted from making observations on what you could see

Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold

Feb 16, 1804

-said that microbes were also made up of one cell
-he stated that microbes were living creatures made up of the same material as animals and plants
-he was wrong about organisms making up of many cells

Matthias Jakob Schleiden

Apr 5, 1804

• German botanist -collaborated with T.schwann, and propposed the cell theory

Theodor Schwann

Dec 7, 1810

-spent all his time studying animals
-partially interested in the digestive system
-Schwann suggested that animals, and not just plants, were made up of cells
-credited withdeveloping the cell theory: all living organisms are made up of cells.

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis

Jul 1, 1818

-one of the most prominent medical figures of his time
-believed that child bed fever was being spread through doctors
-as a result to stop the spread of the disease he just tryed washing his hands

Florence Nightingale

May 12, 1820

-The founder of modern nursing
-The idea that cleanliness was important in preventing disease was not a common one
-her efforts improved sanity practices in military hospitals and led to fewer soldiers dying from infections due to contaminated battle injuries

Rudolf Carl Virchow

Oct 13, 1821

-virchow’s great fame made him a widely respected authority in his numerous fields of endeavor
-he treated and studied ill patients for many years
-he is famous for saying "all cells arise from cells"

Louis Pasteur

Dec 27, 1822

-French chemist and microbiologist
-He was working on an important bussiness in france
-Pasteur fiscoverd that different microbes cause different kinds of spoiling, but heat can kill many of these microbes

Joseph Lister

Apr 5, 1827

-British surgeon and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery
-Concerned that at the high death rates of patients following surgery
-He used a antiseptic to clean surgical instuments

Robert Koch

Dec 11, 1843

-Regarded as the chief founder of that science
-Developed a way to prove that a specific microbe caused a particular disease
-created new ways to grow cultures of uncontaminated microbes.

William Stewart Halsted

Sep 23, 1852

-American surgeon who emphasized strict aseptic technique during surgical procedures
-one of the first surgons to use rubber gloves during surgery