Research History of illness
Illness has been widely misunderstood throughout human history. Much of our understanding of disease was extremely flawed during the time of the plague. While the plague ravaged much of the world’s population, many tried to explain the reason why. Some theories included: astrological forces, earthquakes, poisoning of wells by religious minorities, and God’s anger with man’s sin. These explanations led to an explosion in religious practices and with the mass persecution of religious minorities such as the Jewish people. In some parts of Europe entire Jewish towns were murdered.After the plague had wiped out a large portion of the world population a new theory became more widely accepted. The Miasma theory of disease transmission revolved heavily around environmental factors such as bad air, rotting organic matter, contaminated water, and poor hygiene. This theory did not say that disease was passed from person to person, but was more passed to entire localities by bad air and water, and was easily identified by a foul smell.
The first proposed research on microbial diseases was published in 1546 by Girolamo Fracasto. He proposed that diseases are transmitted by small seed-like things during direct human contact. This was one of the earliest attempts at defining what has come to be called the Germ theory. (1,6,8,9) Louis Pasteur was a pioneer in the Germ theory and identified pathogens that caused several illnesses, as well as methods to prevent their spread such as pasteurization. Both the miasma theory and germ theory proved useful in increasing hygiene in daily life, which was a major factor in preventing the transmission of pathogens from person to person.
