This blog post provides a point form history of the germ theory, some fraudulent points, and some of my comments throughout. I discuss my experience learning this history in university, the problems associated with this history, and the lack of science in the germ theory.
Girolamo Fracastoro 1476-1553
Fracastoro was the first germ theorist, although it was purely speculative. He proposed the “Seeds of Disease” theory in "De Contagione et Contagiosis Morbis" (On Contagion and Contagious Diseases). Fracastoro proposed that diseases were caused by tiny particles that could be transmitted from one person to another. Personally I think this could also be interpreted as toxic chemicals. Originally, the term virus means poison, in Latin.
Fracastoro thought that microorganisms became pathogenic in an animal's heat.He was also the first to mention the word syphilis in his poem "Syphilis or The French Disease". Thus, the origin of the word syphilis.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
Leeuwenhoek invented the microscope. He discovered microorganisms in water, dental plaque & other materials. He suggested that these microorganisms could play a role in disease, but mostly, he objectively viewed the microorganisms under the microscope.
M.A. Plenciz put forth a germ theory of disease (1762) based on Leeuwenhoek's observations. He proposed that these infectious agents were transmitted by air.
Edward Jenner (1749-1823)
Known for creating the smallpox ‘vaccine’. He noticed milkmaids with cowpox did not get smallpox. He took the pus from a cowpox lesion & injected it into a boy named James Phipps. Phipps developed a mild case of cowpox but did not develop smallpox when later exposed to the disease, in his mind demonstrating that cowpox provided protection against smallpox. Of course, no isolation experiments occurred.
This is an interesting observation, but not the same concept as vaccines since they were, technically speaking, different species of pathogens. The pus would have also contained a plethora of other agents. Prior to the vaccination injections, some would drip smallpox or cowpox pus onto lesions willingly, in an attempt to protect themselves. None of Jenners work was proven in a controlled setting.
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
‘Proved’ microorganisms were responsible for fermentation & putrefaction (proven by Antoine Béchamp years before) He also disproved spontaneous generation (Again, previously proven by Béchamp). He was a serial plagiarist of Béchamp, which is well documented in the Annals de Chimmie, shown in the book, Béchamp or Pasteur by Ethel Hume.
Pasteur proposed microbes could cause infectious diseases. He thought that there was a microbe that caused every disease. Thus, a vaccine for every disease. He created Pasteurization, in the name of food safety.
Accounts state that he was known as a mediocre chemist and a fantastic politician. Pasteur had ties to Emperor Napoleon III. There are stories of how he told the emperor that he was going to make money off this somehow. His work largely shaped the Flexner report. The germ theory has always been fundamental for the pharmaceutical companies.
Pasteur was an objective fraud. His personal journals were leaked showing fraudulent data around his vaccine trials. There are also many accounts that Pasteur killed and/or produced disease to their entire herds through his vaccines. His vaccine trials were uncontrolled as well. It is claimed he is an admitted fraud as well. It is claimed that he said “The Germ is nothing and the Terrain is everything” on his death bed.
Robert Koch (1843-1910)
Koch was the first to use stains in microscopy to increase the visibility of the microbes. the beginning of a problematic science. The use of stains in microscopy, notably electron microscopy, is uncontrolled in science.
Koch ‘discovered’ the causative microbe for tuberculosis in 1882. He wrote the Etiology of Tuberculosis
“Single tubercles or particles about the size of a millet seed are quickly cut out of the lung tissue [from diseased guinea pigs or humans] and immediately carried over to the surface of solidified serum in a test tube…”1
The serums mentioned were cow or sheep's blood, agar-agar, nutrient plate. This is what was injected into other guinea pigs. No attempt at isolation, lack of control, no replication of natural transmission pathways (only inoculation shows results), therefore this paper did not utilize the scientific method, and if it did, it would have no external validity. It is mostly a paper on microbe visualization, & disease symptom descriptions
Most notably he developed Kochs postulates. A very logical approach to proving the causal relationship of a microbe and a disease. Unfortunately, there has never been a paper that has satisfied Kochs postulates using a control relative to the experimental procedure. The logic is there, but in practice it has never occurred. The words do not describe what happens in the experiments.
Thomas Rivers (1888-1962)
Rivers worked as a vaccinologist in the early 1900s. He implemented vaccines & other medical procedures in the military (1915). River’s took part in the monomorphism vs pleiomorphism debate. He also played a role in banning the use of pleiomorphism in the scientific literature.
He is well known for reviewing Kochs postulates & created new postulates for viruses (1924). He discussed the difficulties applying Koch's approach to viruses. He mentioned that Kochs postulates were too restrictive & are not needed to prove causality of disease from microbes. This was a more general statement.
With Rivers, there was a loss of logic. That being said, there has never been a paper that has satisfied River’s postulates using a control relative to the experimental procedure.
Thoughts:
The history of the germ theory is taught as though it has proven this theory true. It is taught in university that there is unequivocal evidence that this theory is correct. So much so that many scientists deduce form this theory rather than truly building from the ground up. The germ theory is treated dogmatically, no one dares to question it.
The major problem is that the papers presented by these gentlemen in this blog post prove nothing. Koch makes less of an attempt at his own postulates than the modern scientist. Not that our modern technology has helped fulfill the postulates proposed by Rivers or Koch. Pasteur similarly has never attempted to control his experiments or trials.
Thinking about the true nature of science, considering Popper’s falsification, the germ theory should have been reevaluated since the Spanish flu. All natural contagion pathway studies have failed. No one has ever been able to produce a contagion study that proves a natural contagion by air, or natural fluid transfer. The only time contagion has been ‘proven’ is through unnatural transmission such as inoculation. However, I should mention that no isolated organism has ever been inoculated into an individual, as that does not cause disease. Inoculations always involve other chemicals, therefore the variable (germ) has never been isolated in these studies. This is evident in any paper you read, whether it be modern, or historical.
The germ theory has taken over science. It is treated as gospel. It is truly a doctrine. It is textbook dogmatism. The germ theory doesn’t abide by the rules of science. It is not re-evaluated when it is falsified. There are no valid and relative controls. The scientific method is not used. Therefore, it is a pseudoscience.
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