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Epidemics of the 19th century were faced without the medical advances that made 20th-century epidemics much rarer and less lethal. Micro-organisms (viruses and bacteria) had been discovered in the 18th century, but it was not until the late 19th century that the experiments of Lazzaro Spallanzani and Louis Pasteur disproved spontaneous generation conclusively, allowing germ theory and Robert ...
The germ theory of disease proposes that invisible microorganisms (bacteria and viruses) are the cause of particular illnesses in both humans and animals. [2] Prior to medicine becoming hard science, there were many philosophical theories about how disease originated and was transmitted.
A representation by Robert Seymour of the cholera epidemic depicts the spread of the disease in the form of poisonous air.. The miasma theory was the predominant theory of disease transmission before the germ theory took hold towards the end of the 19th century; it is no longer accepted as a correct explanation for disease by the scientific community.
There are more than 500 species of arboviruses, but in the 1930s only three were known to cause disease in humans: yellow fever virus, dengue virus and Pappataci fever virus. [202] More than 100 of such viruses are now known to cause human diseases including encephalitis. [203] Yellow fever is the most notorious disease caused by a flavivirus ...
In the same year, 1898, Friedrich Loeffler (1852–1915) and Paul Frosch (1860–1928) passed the first animal virus through a similar filter and discovered the cause of foot-and-mouth disease. [ 5 ] The first human virus to be identified was the yellow fever virus . [ 6 ]
Other exceptions to Koch's postulates include evidence that some pathogens can cause several diseases, such as the varicella-zoster virus causing chickenpox and shingles. Conversely, diseases like meningitis can be caused by a variety of bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic pathogens.
An 1831 color lithograph by Robert Seymour depicts cholera as a robed, skeletal creature emanating a deadly black cloud.. The miasma theory (also called the miasmic theory) is an abandoned medical theory that held that diseases—such as cholera, chlamydia, or the Black Death—were caused by a miasma (μίασμα, Ancient Greek for 'pollution'), a noxious form of "bad air", also known as ...
In the 15th century, anatomic dissection was repeatedly used by the Italian physician Antonio Benivieni (1443–1502) to determine cause of death. [3] Antonio Benivieni is also credited with having introduced necropsy to the medical field. [8] Perhaps the most famous early gross pathologist was Giovanni Morgagni (1682–1771).