Spreading Germs: Disease Theories and Medical Practice in Britain, 1865–1900

by Michael Worboys

• ISBN13: 9780521773027
• ISBN10: 0521773024
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-16
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Spreading Germs discusses how modern ideas on the bacterial causes of communicable diseases were constructed and spread within the British medical profession in the last third of the nineteenth century. Michael Worboys surveys many existing interpretations of this pivotal moment in modern medicine. He shows that there were many germ theories of disease, and that these were developed and used in different ways across veterinary medicine, surgery, public health and general medicine. The growth of bacteriology is considered in relation to the evolution of medical practice rather than as a separate science of germs.

Author Biography

Michael Worboys is Head of Research in the School of Cultural Studies at Sheffield Hallam University.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	xi
Abbreviations	xiii
Preface	xv
Introduction	1	(19)
Medical Practice and Disease Theories, c. 1865	20	(23)
Veterinary Medicine, the Cattle Plague and Contagion, 1865-1890	43	(30)
Germs in the Air: Surgeons, Hospitalism and Sepsis, 1865-1876	73	(35)
`Something Definite to Guide You in Your Sanitary Precautions': Sanitary Science, Poisons and Contagium Viva, 1866-1880	108	(42)
`Deeper Than the Surface of the Wound': Surgeons Antisepsis and Asepsis, 1876-1900	150	(43)
From Heredity to Infection: Tuberculosis, Bacteriology and Medicine, 1870-1900	193	(41)
Preventive Medicine and the `Bacteriological Era'	234	(43)
Conclusion	277	(16)
Select Bibliography	293	(24)
Index	317