Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/151

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A Short History of Nursing

Florence Nightingale i35 of Pasteur. He completely revolutionized surgery, by practising, first, antisepsis, and then asepsis. In the light of the germ theory one disease after another was studied afresh. The bacilli of tuber- culosis and of Asiatic cholera were verified by Koch (1882), (1884). The typhoid bacillus was isolated by Eberth (1880) and the disease itself had been proven to be infectious by Budd, an English physician in 1873. In 1883 Loeffier discovered the diphtheria bacillus. The perils of yellow fever were banished by the writings of Finlay (i 886), and the experiments of Reed and his colleagues (1900), which showed the part played by the mosquito carrier. We can give no more space to these details. Suffice it to say that the germ theory, far from weakening the claims of sanitation and hygiene, gave them, for the first time, irresistible strength, and laid the groundwork for all modem health movements. Miss Nightingale's revolution in nursing ac- companied the medical revolution, and made ready the skilled assistants needed in the rapid advance of medical and surgical science. During the lifetime of Miss Nightingale there arose most of the new movements for social pro- gress and humanitarian advance with which stu- dents are familiar. Industrial reform work with