1. Provide a historical account of the idea of “contagion”. What fueled it? Without microscopes, how could they understand contagion? What are Miasmas?
Humans have explored the causes of diseases and how they are transmitted for thousands of years. Hippocrates and another Greek philosopher Herodotus discussed diseases such as smallpox. Since 1500 BC, different societies began inventing new ways to treat water and improve the quality. For example, Hippocrates invited the practice of filtering water after 500 BC. Other culture believed diseases were sent from Gods or cast through witchcraft. According to Harvard’s Open Library, the belief of contagiousness was often accompanying folk traditions before the late 19th century. People were constantly dying from epidemics and others began looking for explanations on how they were dying. Since they did not have microscopes, people developed theories and concepts of diseases through pure observation.
For a while, people believed that diseases were caused by the awful smells of human and animal waste and they were sometimes branded as miasmas. And so the Miasma theory was formed and continued on for several centuries. The Miasma theory states that diseases …show more content…
The miasma and contagion theory came before the germ theory however as the germ theory began to be developed throughout time, the germ theory became the basis of medicine. The germ theory was confirmed in the 19th century by French scientist Louis Pasteur. Pasteur discovered that fermentation was caused by living organisms; that “the processes of fermentation and decay were caused by microorganisms present in the air and that microorganisms could be killed by heating (Wellcome Library, London). With this discovery, Pasteur continued to find different species of bacteria and how to make bacteria and viruses less dangerous, in other words, a
Humans have explored the causes of diseases and how they are transmitted for thousands of years. Hippocrates and another Greek philosopher Herodotus discussed diseases such as smallpox. Since 1500 BC, different societies began inventing new ways to treat water and improve the quality. For example, Hippocrates invited the practice of filtering water after 500 BC. Other culture believed diseases were sent from Gods or cast through witchcraft. According to Harvard’s Open Library, the belief of contagiousness was often accompanying folk traditions before the late 19th century. People were constantly dying from epidemics and others began looking for explanations on how they were dying. Since they did not have microscopes, people developed theories and concepts of diseases through pure observation.
For a while, people believed that diseases were caused by the awful smells of human and animal waste and they were sometimes branded as miasmas. And so the Miasma theory was formed and continued on for several centuries. The Miasma theory states that diseases …show more content…
The miasma and contagion theory came before the germ theory however as the germ theory began to be developed throughout time, the germ theory became the basis of medicine. The germ theory was confirmed in the 19th century by French scientist Louis Pasteur. Pasteur discovered that fermentation was caused by living organisms; that “the processes of fermentation and decay were caused by microorganisms present in the air and that microorganisms could be killed by heating (Wellcome Library, London). With this discovery, Pasteur continued to find different species of bacteria and how to make bacteria and viruses less dangerous, in other words, a