Fig. 93.—Robert Koch, Born 1843.
Koch, with the rigorous scientific spirit for which he is noteworthy, established four necessary links in the chain of evidence to show that a particular organism is connected with a particular disease. These four postulates of Koch are: First, that a microscopic organism of a particular type should be found in great abundance in the blood and the tissue of the sick animal; second, that a pure culture should be made of the suspected organism; third, that this pure culture, when introduced into the body of another animal, should produce the disease; and, fourth, that in the blood and tissues of that animal there should be found quantities of the particular organism that is suspected of producing the disease. In the case of some diseases this entire chain of evidence has been established; but in others, such as cholera and typhoid fever, the last steps have not been completed, for the reason that the animals experimented upon, namely, guinea-pigs, rabbits, and mice, are not susceptible to these diseases.
Fig. 94.—Sir Joseph Lister, Born 1827.
Lister.—The other member of the great triumvirate of bacteriology is Sir Joseph Lister (Fig. 94); born in 1827, he has been successively professor of surgery in the universities of Glasgow (1860) and of Edinburgh (1869), and in King's College, London (1877). His practical application of the germ-theory introduced aseptic methods into surgery and completely revolutionized that field. This was in 1867. In an address given that year before the British Medical Association in Dublin, he said: "When it had been shown by the researches of Pasteur that the septic property of the atmosphere depended, not on oxygen or any gaseous constituent, but on minute organisms suspended in it, which owed their energy to their vitality, it occurred to me that decomposition in the injured part might be avoided without excluding the air, by applying as a dressing some material capable of destroying the life of the floating particles." At first he used carbolic acid for this purpose. "The wards of which he had charge in the Glasgow Infirmary were especially affected by gangrene, but in a short time became the healthiest in the world; while other wards separated by a passageway retained their infection." The method of Lister has been universally adopted, and at the same time has been greatly extended and improved.
The question of immunity, i.e., the reason why after having had certain contagious diseases one is rendered immune, is of very great interest, but is of medical bearing, and therefore is not dealt with here.
Bacteria and Nitrates.—One further illustration of the connection between bacteria and practical affairs may be mentioned. It is well known that animals are dependent upon plants, and that plants in the manufacture of protoplasm make use of certain nitrites and nitrates which they obtain from the soil. Now, the source of these nitrites and nitrates is very interesting. In animals the final products of broken-down protoplasm are carbon dioxide, water, and a nitrogenous substance called urea. These products are called excretory products. The animal machine is unable to utilize the energy which exists in the form of potential energy in these substances, and they are removed from the body.
The history of nitrogenous substance is the one which at present interests us the most. Entering the soil, it is there acted upon by bacteria residing in the soil, these bacteria possessing the power of making use of the lowest residuum of energy left in the nitrogenous substance. They cause the nitrogen and the hydrogen to unite with oxygen in such a way that there are produced nitrous and nitric acids, and from these two acids, through chemical action, result the nitrites and the nitrates. These substances are then utilized by the plant in the manufacture of protoplasm, and the plant is fed upon by animal organisms, so that a direct relationship is established between these lower forms of life and the higher plant and animal series; a relationship that is not only interesting, but that helps to throw an important side-light upon the general nature of vital activities, their kind and their reach. In addition to the soil bacteria mentioned above, there are others that form association with the rootlets of certain plants and possess the power of fixing free nitrogen from the air.