apr 30, 1861 - Germ Theory

Description:

Louis Pasteur (France: 1860's) published his germ theory in 1861 . Before he made this discovery, doctors had noticed bacteria, but they believed it was the disease that caused the bacteria (the so-called theory of 'spontaneous generation') rather than the other way round.

1840s criticism of this theory by Bassi (specificity and cause) and Henle (who said that microbes cause disease) lead to divide in the scientific community which lead to Pasteur's swan necked flask experiment.
He proved that boiling the liquid killed microbes; micribes cannot be created and are in the air.
He then showed that microbes spoiled the milk which gave evidence to show that his germ theory was correct.

One of the spin-offs of Pasteur's discovery was the pasteurisation of milk, which prevented it from going sour by killing the germs and sealing it from the air.

WElls brought germ theory to England in 1864

Added to timeline:

Date: