Background information for Dracula By Bram Stoker Angela Henderson

1. 19TH CENTURY
GERM
THEORY

2. THE GERMTHEORY OF DISEASE ISTHE CURRENTLY ACCEPTED SCIENTIFIC
THEORYTHAT EXPLAINS HOW DISEASES ARE CAUSED,AND HOWTHEY
SPREAD.
“THE GERMTHEORY HOLDSTRUE INTHE CASE OFTHEVIRUSTHAT HAS
CAUSED A GLOBAL PANDEMIC. ”
1850s-early 1860s
Louis Pasteur’s work on
fermentation and
spontaneous generation
1870
Germ theory of disease
accepted as articulated by
Pasteur, Koch, Tyndall and
Lister
1884
Robert Koch’s research on
cholera
19th century
Germ theory is prevailing in
medicine as we know that
microorganisms known as
pathogens or “germs lead to
disease. This completely
revolutionized pathology and
surgical practice
2020
Coronavirus is a virus that
travels through various living
organisms and caused illness
to humans. Another way the
coronavirus pandemic is
linked with germ theory is
because researchers from all
over the world are trying to
find a vaccine against the
virus.
Sources: https://www.timesnownews.com/health/article/coronavirus-what-is-the-germ-theory-of-disease-here-is-what-should-know-about-it-in-relation-to-covid/575457
https://www.britannica.com/science/history-of-medicine/Verification-of-the-germ-theory
Nancy Tomes, “Apostle of the Germ”

3. ZYMOTIC THEORY OF DISEASE
 The prevailing theory in early 19th century was Zymotic Theory of Disease or “Filth” disease
 The disease agents were chemical ferments produced by decaying filth, and that they could generate
spontaneously given the right atmospheric circumstances
 People suffered from diseases we rarely hear about today due to vaccinations: typhus and typhoid
fevers, smallpox, scarlet fever, measles, erysipelas, cholera, whooping-cough, diphtheria, etc.

4. DEFINING GERM AND GERM THEORY TERMS

5. GERM THEORY
 EARLY BEGININGS were researchers looking into
the connections between microbes and disease
 Two related propositions: animal and human
diseases were caused by distinctive species of
microorganisms; these are widely present in air
and water (33) and these germs came from a
previous case of the same disease.
 Key to germ theory is the causal link between
germs and disease.
 Disease particles require specific conditions to
develop
 Read page 34 on the Early Criticisms of Germ
Theory – key to the evolution of this theory
 “The very ubiquity of the germ made it difficult
for physicians to accept its casual role in disease”
(35)
 Anthrax was the first disease specifically linked to
a microorganism (37)
 Commentators sorted various species of
microorganisms into good and bad: beer and
bread making vs. bacterial clouds.