Web links for the germ theory of disease

Development of understanding of an infectious disease. The early development of epidemiology

Here is a weblink for a short audio-file narration of the Semmelweis story.

There is a very good site about John Snow, from UCLA Department of Epidemiology with maps and background information.

Interesting activities on cholera in the 19th century using historical documents from the UK National Archive.

The Nobel Prize site has a section on Robert Koch.

Look at the St Louis Community College web site which gives a history of microbiology, the development of the techniques needed to study micro-organisms and the understanding of the germ theory of disease. It has links to other relevant sites.

A history of some of the main contributors to the development of germ theory can be found here.

An important contribution to the development of germ theory was made when the theory of spontaneous generation of life was disproved by Pasteur and others. you can find details of Pasteur’s experiment disproving spontaneous generation here.

Very useful historical information and questions are included in Schools' History Project book Medicine and Health through Time; Ian Dawson and Ian Coulson; published by Hodder-Murray.

Development of vaccination

The Jenner Museum in Gloucestershire has an illustrated site explaining Jenner’s work.

This site has a script for a simple drama explaining the key points in Pasteur’s work on chicken cholera and anthrax.

A book review of ‘The Private Science of Louis Pasteur’ tells of his achievements but also describes his weaknesses and dishonesty, explaining the Toussaint episode and the risks he took with the rabies vaccine.

A distressing 90 second video clip of a child with rabies.

Here, you can find a historical survey of vaccination with graphs showing its impact on health in the UK.

Microbes and Men by Robert Reid published by the BBC in 1974 provides a readable account of most of the important developments (ISBN 0 563 12469 5).

Pasteur in The Nature of Science series from the Association for Science Education is a useful booklet.

Last updated: 13 November 2007