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

Spreading Germs discusses how modern ideas on the bacterial causes diseases were constructed and spread within the British medical profession.

Michael Worboys (Author)

9780521773027, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 October 2000

346 pages, 16 b/w illus. 3 tables
23.5 x 16.3 x 2.5 cm, 0.6 kg

"Worboys has provided a significant piece of scholarship as he considers the relationship between changing disease theory and medical practice. It is a great addition to the history of medicine, and could well be instuctive to historians of any field." Journal of World History

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.

Illustrations
Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction
1. Medical practice and disease theories, c.1865
2. Veterinary medicine, the cattle plague and contagion, 1865–90
3. Germs in the air: surgeons, hospitalism and sepsis, c.1865–76
4. 'Something definite to guide you in your sanitary precautions': sanitary science, poisons and contagium viva, 1866–80
5. 'Deeper than the surface of the wound': surgeons antisepsis and asepsis, 1876–1900
6. From heredity to infection: tuberculosis, bacteriology and medicine, 1870–1900
7. Preventive medicine and the 'bacteriological era'
Conclusion
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: History of medicine [MBX]