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3 unusual facts about Germ theory of disease


Germ theory of disease

By talking to local residents, he identified the source of the outbreak as the public water pump on Broad Street (now Broadwick Street).

Building on Leeuwenhoek's work, physician Nicolas Andry argued in 1700 that microorganisms he called "worms" were responsible for smallpox and other diseases.

The Italian Agostino Bassi was the first person to prove that a disease was caused by a microorganism when he conducted a series of experiments between 1808 and 1813, demonstrating that a "vegetable parasite" caused a disease in silkworms known as calcinaccio.


1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak

The germ theory was not created at this point (as Louis Pasteur would not create it until 1861), so Snow was unaware of the mechanism by which the disease was transmitted, but evidence led him to believe that it was not due to breathing foul air.


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