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Microscopic! February, 2007
…Care should be taken where there are swamps in the neighbourhood, because certain tiny creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes breed there. These float through the air and enter the body by the mouth and nose and cause serious disease (Marcus Varro, circa 46 BCE).
From Medical Marvels: The 100 Greatest Advances in Medicine
by Eugene and Alex Straus |
Microbe and germ are words that generally describe microscopic invaders that cause contagious, or infectious, diseases. There are three major types of microbes: bacteria, viruses, and parasites.
From Outbreak: Disease Detectives at Work
by Mark Friedlander |
The hospital as an institution providing specialized medical care developed in the early medieval period. Constantinople, in the Byzantine Empire, boasted one of the earliest known hospitals. The Muslim world also had some renowned examples, the best known of which were in Baghdad, Damascus, and Cairo. Baghdad’s first hospital dated to the ninth century. At the combination hospital and medical school in Damascus, rooms were so elegant and the library so extensive that healthy people feigned illness to enjoy the accommodations.
From The Black Death by Tracee De Hahn |
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To many, it was the Speckled Monster. Few forces in history were more feared, or proved more powerful, than the infinitesimally small and highly contagious variola virus – the agent of smallpox. This dreaded disease finally met its match in the late eighteenth century, when a little known country doctor, [Edward Jenner], wondered why England’s lovely milkmaids rarely suffered the scars of the pox. His curiosity led to something seemingly miraculous – the world’s first vaccine – turning the tide in humanity’s age-old battle against smallpox epidemics.
From Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster
by Albert Marrin |
An estimated 2 billion people were stricken with the Spanish influenza during the 10 ghastly months of the pandemic. Between 20 and 40 million died in this short span, making the 1918 flu the most extensive and fastest-spreading killer disease in history. In the decades that have followed, scientists have uncovered the cause of the deadly flu, yet influenza continues to afflict the world’s population. In fact, influenza may be the most dangerous infectious disease known to humankind.
From The Influenza Pandemic of 1918
by Virginia Aronson |
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Anderson |
Fever, 1793
by Laurie Halse Anderson
In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.
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Camus |
The Plague
by Albert Camus
In the small coastal city of Iran, Algeria, rats begin rising from the filth only to die as bloody heaps in the streets. Shortly after, many residents experience intense fevers and then perish--victims of the unseen menace of the bubonic plague.
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Cindrich |
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Cooney |
Code Orange
by Caroline B. Cooney
While conducting research for a school paper on smallpox, Mitty finds an envelope containing 100-year-old smallpox scabs and fears that he has infected himself and all of New York City.
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Cushman |
Matilda Bone
by Karen Cushman
Fourteen-year-old Matilda, an apprentice bonesetter and practitioner of medicine in a village in medieval England, tries to reconcile the various aspects of her life, both spiritual and practical.
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Roberts |
The One Left Behind
by Willo Davis Roberts
Mandy’s life changes forever when her ten-year-old twin sister eats a hamburger tainted with E. coli and dies.
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Walsh |
A Parcel of Patterns
by Jill Paton Walsh
Mall Percival tells how the plague came to her Derbyshire village of Eyam in the year 1665, how the villagers determined to isolate themselves, and how three-fourths of them died before the end of the following year.
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Wein |
The Sunbird
by Elizabeth Wein
When, in the 6th century, plague spreads from Britain to Aksum, young Telemakos travels to the kingdom's salt mines to discover the identity of the traitor who is spreading plague with the salt from port to port.
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Wooderson |
The Plague
by Phillip Wooderson
My Side of the Story series, featuring Rachel’s Story and Robert’s Story.
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Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
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In his own modest way he realized how rare his gifts were and also that other people's motives were not always those of a true student of nature. In a 1715 letter he noted:
"Some go to make money out of science, or to get a reputation in the learned world. But in lens-grinding and discovering things hidden from our sight, these count for nought. And I am satisfied too that not one man in a thousand is capable of such study, because it needs much time ... and you must always keep thinking about these things if you are to get any results. And over and above all, most men are not curious to know: nay, some even make no bones about saying, What does it matter whether we know this or not?" |
Quoted from article in Gale's Encyclopedia of World Biography.
See Biography Resource Center for more on Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. |
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Most bacteria aren't bad. We breathe and eat and ingest gobs of bacteria every single moment of our lives. Our food is covered in bacteria. And you're breathing in bacteria all the time, and you mostly don't get sick. That's because your immune system evolved specifically to see bacteria and to do surveillance: to tell the bad guys from the good guys, and to get rid of the bad ones.
~ Bonnie Bassler, quoted during interview with PBS' NOVA
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Dinner with Typhoid Mary: Poor Mary Mallon. Of all the bizarre and melancholy fates that could befall an otherwise ordinary person, hers has to be among the most sad and peculiar.
~ Quoted from The Story of Mary Mallon - Typhoid Mary
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The germ theory of disease, also called the pathogenic theory of medicine, is a theory that proposes that microorganisms are the cause of many diseases. Although highly controversial when first proposed, it is now a cornerstone of modern medicine and clinical microbiology, leading to such important innovations as antibiotics and hygienic practices.
~ Quoted from Wikipedia article on "Germ Theory"
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