Chapter XIII: The Work of Pasteur, Koch, and Others, 276

The bacteria discovered by Leeuwenhoek in 1687, 276. The development
of the science of bacteriology of great importance to the
human race, 276. Some general topics connected with the study
of bacteria, 277. The spontaneous origin of life, 277-293. Biogenesis
or abiogenesis, 277. Historical development of the question,
277. I. From Aristotle, 325 B.C., to Redi, 1668, 278. The
spontaneous origin of living forms universally believed in, 278.
Illustrations, 278. II. From Redi to Schwann, 278-284. Redi,
in 1668, puts the question to experimental test and overthrows
the belief in the spontaneous origin of forms visible to the unaided
eye, 279. The problem narrowed to the origin of microscopic
animalcula, 281. Needham and Buffon test the question
by the use of tightly corked vials containing boiled organic
solutions, 281. Microscopic life appears in their infusions,
282. Spallanzani, in 1775, uses hermetically sealed glass flasks
and gets opposite results, 282. The discovery of oxygen raises
another question: Does prolonged heat change its vitalizing properties?
284. Experiments of Schwann and Schulze, 1836-37,
284. The question of the spontaneous origin of microscopic life
regarded as disproved, 286. III. Pouchet reopens the question
in 1858, maintaining that he finds microscopic life produced in
sterilized and hermetically sealed solutions, 286. The question
put to rest by the brilliant researches of Pasteur and of Tyndall,
288, 289. Description of Tyndall's apparatus and his use of optically
pure air, 290. Weismann's theoretical speculations regarding
the origin of biophors, 292. The germ-theory of disease,
293-304. The idea of _contagium vivum_ revived in 1840, 293.
Work of Bassi, 294. Demonstration, in 1877, of the actual connection
between anthrax and splenic fever, 294. Veneration of
Pasteur, 294. His personal qualities, 296. Filial devotion, 297.
Steps in his intellectual development, 298. His investigation of
diseases of wine (1868), 299. Of the silkworm plague (1865-68),
299. His studies on the cause and prevention of disease constitute
his chief service to humanity, 299. Establishment of the
Pasteur Institute in Paris, 299. Recent developments, 300.
Robert Koch; his services in discovering many bacteria of disease,
300. Sir Joseph Lister and antiseptic surgery, 302. Bacteria
in their relation to agriculture, soil inoculation, etc., 303.
Knowledge of bacteria as related to the growth of general biology,
304.