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• germ theory - pasteur

  • 1950s - pasteur experimented on alcohol to prove that germs caused disease
  • 1860s - disproved spontaneous generation at a competition by the french academy of science
  • 1861 - published germ theory (micro-organisms in the air cause disease)
  • 1865 - silkworm experiments to link micro-organisms to disease in animals
  • 1878 - published germ theory and application to medicine
  • It was pasteurs work which successfully proved that microbes caused decay in food and in animals
• germ theory - technology

  • microscopes had been developed in the late 17th century but by 1830 had been improved significantly by Joesph Lister and could be magnified to 1000x without distortion.
  • Pasteur could therefore observe in detail the behaviour of microorganisms
  • it was these technological developments that allowed pasteur to formulate his theory about germs
• vaccines - work of koch

  • developed pasteur's germ theory further by using staining techniques to identify specific bacteria
  • 1872 identified anthrax microbes which affected animals and would go onto identifying the germs that affected humans
  • 1878 - septicaemia
  • 1882 - TB
  • 1883 - cholera
• vaccines - work of pasteur

  • pastuer developed germ theory in the 1860s and by the late 1870s applied his knowledge of germ theory and the identification of specific microbes to find cures for disease
  • 1878 - he discovered that weak/old chicken germs could be used to fight a more virulent fresh culture of the disease
  • 1881 - he developed an anthrax vaccine for animals
  • 1882 - he developed a rabies vaccine which he also used on humans
  • pasteur developed a vaccine which could be used effectively on animals and began to experiment with their use on humans
• magic bullets - work of koch

  • 1872 - set up a lab and developed a method of staining and identifying microorganisms
  • 1876 - identified anthrax
  • 1878 - identified septicaemia
  • koch inspired other scientists who worked as part of his team. they discovered new microbes and looked at ways of killing them
  • once microbes had been identified it was possible for scientists to look for chemicals to target them and kill them
• magic bullets - work of behring (by 1910)


  • Paul Ehrich worked as part of Koch's team
  • he believed a magic bullet chemical could target a specific germs and focused on syphilis - he experimented with arsenic
  • 1909 - salvarsarn 606 discovered to kill the syphilis germ
  • 1911 first used on humans
  • work of Behring was instrumental in the development for the first magic bullet
• magic bullet - work of domagk (1940)

  • domagk and kalerer investigated the use of dyed to destory infectious microbes
  • 1932 - domagk discovered prontosil was effective on the streptococcus bacteria and bacterial infections
  • first type of antibiotic that could treat diseases like strep-throat
  • work of domagk was key to developing the sulfa magic bullet
• use of penicillin - work of Fleming, Florey and Chain

  • 1928 - Fleming had discovered a mould culture that prevented the growth of staphylococci, even when diluted 800 times
  • 1935 - Florey and Chain began their own research to further Fleming's findings
  • 1939 - the assembled their own team of pathologists, chemists and biochemists
  • 1941 - extracted enough penicillin to successfully treat mice and humans
  • By 1941, it had been proven that penicillin could successfully treat bacterial infections in humans
• use of penicillin - WW2

  The US entered the war in 1941 and the demands of war meant that a powerful drug like penicillin needed to be mass produced

  1942 - the US government gave $80 million to 4 drug companies to find a way to mass produce penicillin

  1944 - enough penicillin had been produced to treat all of the D-Day casualties and by 1945 the US army was using 2 million doses of penicillin a month

  the demands of war and the actions of the US government meant that penicillin was manufactured on an industrial scale and used extensively by 1945