1860s–1880sReputable sourceWell documented
Germ Theory: Pasteur and Koch
On the timeline · around 1860s–1880s · The Rise of Medicine
What happened
For most of history, disease was blamed on bad air or imbalances in the body. In the 1860s the French chemist Louis Pasteur showed that microscopic organisms cause fermentation and disease, and developed vaccines for anthrax and rabies. In the 1880s the German physician Robert Koch proved that specific microbes cause specific diseases, identifying the bacteria behind anthrax, tuberculosis, and cholera.
Why it matters
Germ theory revolutionized medicine. Understanding that tiny living organisms cause infection made possible antiseptic surgery, vaccination, sanitation, and eventually antibiotics — the tools with which humanity finally began to fight back against epidemics.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Germ Theory · Reputable source
Related timelines
- Medicine → — The discovery that microbes cause disease