Germ+Theory+and+Urban+Hygiene

Steven Akre __**Germ Theory and Urban Hygiene**__

__Urban Life is Filthy__ Urban life during the industrial revolution was not at all what it is like today. If you were not a farmer, who lived in the country, or a wealthy business owner, who could afford to live in a nice house or nice apartment, you probably would have worked in the factories. To work in the factories one would have to live near them because you would have no way to travel except by foot. As a result of most of Britain's population being in this class large slums or tenements developed outside of factories. These slums would have people who were working for nearly nothing living in them, and therefore could not receive proper maintenance or sanitation. The people who lived in these tenements were very filthy and could get or develop diseases very easily from all the filth. There were no public hygienic restrooms so the streets were filled with waste from humans and animals alike. People did not believe in hygiene because no one knew about germs and how diseases started. One such out break was cholera, before people knew about germs and before Germ Theory was discovered people had no idea what this was, and believed it was a new plague. Shown at left, so many people were dying that victims had their own cemeteries.

__Germ Theory and Louis Pasteur__ Louis Pasteur was born on December 7th in 1822, during the Industrial Revolution. He was born in France not England however his discoveries that he came up with later in his life effected people all over the world not just in England and France. As a young boy he did nothing special in his studies, however at the age of 16 he was encouraged to become a teacher, and finally he applied himself. While applying himself at Collège Royal de Besançon he received his bachelors degree in science. Louis, while chairmen of chemistry at the University of Lille, started studying fermentation and why it happened. His famous experiment to prove Germ Theory was tested at this time and the process later became known as Pasteurization. Louis Pasteur's theory on germs being microorganisms that cannot be seen by the naked eye saved countless lives. He was the first to suggest to army doctors that they should sterilize their interments, with heat, before using them. This proved to be very helpful and saved many lives of soldiers. Louis also came up with the first immunizations against diseases such as rabies, cholera, and anthrax in animals. Louis discovered that if one were to take the germs that cause the disease and weaken them then inject them into someone, that person would build an immunity against said disease. He proved this with an experiment with sheep for anthrax.

__Experiments by Louis Pasteur__ One of Louis Pasteur's most famous experiments was his experiment on fermentation that disproved spontaneous generation of germs. Louis took two beakers shaped like this: Louis would then proceed to heat the body of the beaker, filled with broth, and let dust and particles collect in the neck of the beaker. The heated beakers would have no microbes in the broth because of the heating. No microbes grew in the broths of each of these beakers because there was no way for them to get inside and the ones inside were all dead. To show this Louis broke the neck off the first beaker, exposing it to the outside air where dust particles carrying microbes got into it. Microbes began to grow inside of it, but not the sealed beaker. This disproved spontaneous generation right there, and was the first experiment to prove this fact. Also people now could keep foods good for longer, by heating them then keeping them closed inside of containers. For example milk stayed good for longer inside containers because it would be heated to kill the microbes in it.

Another Experiment of Louis' was the experiment with sheep and anthrax. Anthrax was killing many sheep and cattle and other livestock all over Europe. Louis showed that his immunization could build immunity to the disease by injecting half a herd of sheep with the vaccine and the other with out it, then injecting all the sheep with anthrax. All the sheep who had the vaccine survived, the other half all died. This was Louis' definite evidence that his immunizations worked. He then applied this to humans and diseases effecting humans, and successfully treated a child who had been bitten by a rabid dog.

__Effects on Urban Hygiene__ Before people knew about germs and how important it was to keep the streets clean they would throw garbage and human waste out onto the street, causing many outbreaks of diseases. Louis changed all of this, by the 19th century people all over began to accept this policy and began to dispose properly of waste. Doctors and scientists would lecture the importance of treating garbage and water to kill germs in them. This cut the out breaks of diseases drastically. In England policies were even brought to parliament to help the poor communities sterility. Some changes are seen here by this poster, because after the Industrial revolution people used what Louis Pastured discovered and demonstrated.

Bibliography:


 * "Chadwick's Report on Sanitary Conditions." __The Victorian Web: An Overview__. 28 Sep. 2009 .
 * Edinburgh Board of Health."New York Cholera Outbreak of 1832" 1832. New York Historical Society. Online image. New York Times.org 27 Sept. 2009. 


 * "Environmental Science and Bacteriology: Swan-neck flask of Pasteur." __Environmental Science and Bacteriology__. 28 Sep. 2009 .
 * "Health and Hygiene in the Nineteenth Century." __The Victorian Web: An Overview__. 28 Sep. 2009 .
 * "Louis Pasteur and Germ Theory." Science, technology, and Society: the impact of Science in the 19th Century. David E. Newton, Neil Schlager, Kelle Sisung 1st edition. Two volumes. Detroit: UXL, 2001.
 * "Louis Pasteur Biography." __Encyclopedia of World Biography__. 27 Sep. 2009 .
 * "Sanitation and Disease in Rich and Poor." __The Victorian Web: An Overview__. 28 Sep. 2009 .