Scientists

Ch. 1 Outline

Paul Ehrlich

• discovered Salvarsan → drug used to treat syphilis

Edward Jenner

• performed the first vaccination

• began the field of immunology → the study of the body’s defenses against pathogens

Robert Koch

• founder of modern bacteriology

• studied causative agent for anthrax in cattle (bacillus anthracis)

Joseph Lister

• father of modern surgery

• carbolic acid spray

• developed procedures to sterilize surgical instruments and clean wounds (aseptic technique)

John Needham

• spontaneous generation

  • boiled beef gravy and infusion of plant material in vials and tightly sealed with corks

  • observed the vials after a few days and noticed that they were cloudy and revealed an abundance of “microscopical animals of most dimensions”

  • explained that there must be a “life force” that causes inanimate matter to spontaneously come to life because he had heated the vials sufficiently to kill everything

Florence Nightingale

• nurse who introduced cleanliness and other antiseptic techniques into nursing practice

• Crimean War

• founder of modern nursing

Louis Pasteur

• father of microbiology

• disproved spontaneous generous

• bent the necks of flasks to create an S-shape that allowed air to enter but preventing the introduction of dust and microbes into the broth

Francesco Redi

• conducted an experiment that showed when decaying meat was kept away from flies, maggots never developed

• when meat was exposed to flies, it was infested with maggots

Ignaz Semmelweis

• observed that there was a higher morbidity rate in hospitals compared to at home births

• puerperal fever → childbed fever

• pioneer of antiseptic policy and prevention of nosocomial infection → required med students to wash their hands using chlorinated lime water

• mortality dropped from 18.3% to 1.3%

Lazzaro Spallanzani

• boiled infusions for almost an hour and sealed the vials by melting their slender necks closed

• infusions remained clear unless he broke the seal and exposed the infusion to air which resulted in them becoming cloudy with microorganisms

  • he concluded three things:

    • Needham either had to heat his vials sufficiently to kill all microbes or hadn’t sealed them tightly enough

    • microorganisms exist in the air and can contaminate experiments

    • spontaneous generation of microorganisms doesn’t occur; all living things arise from other living things

Anton van Leeuwenhoek

• reported the existence of protozoa in 1674

• reported the existence of bacteria in 1676

• created a microscope that can see microorganisms

Carolus Linnaeus

• Binomial nomenclature

• Father of modern taxonomy