Southern Illinois University Carbondale OpenSIUC May 1974 5-20-1974 The aiD ly Egyptian, May 20, 1974 Daily Egyptian Staff Follow this and additional works at: http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/de_May1974 Volume 55, Issue 171 Recommended Citation , . "The aiD ly Egyptian, May 20, 1974." (May 1974). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by OpenSIUC. It has been accepted for inclusion in May 1974 by an authorized administrator of OpenSIUC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 'EgyptiWi Secrets of a mi niature universe . 'Magazine 80uthem Illinois University Solving the microworld's mysteries By Dan McClary Francesco Redi, who demonstrated Realizing the invisible nature of the cause, rather than a product of fermen· that worms in putrefying meat were possi bl e ''seeds of microscopic life," tatian, that the early proponents of the Some JOO years ago. a minor official derived from Oy eggs, not spon­ John Needham ( 1745 ) and others after microbial cause of fermentation were of the town of Delft. Holland discovered taneously from invisible seeds. The im ­ him . used healed and stoppered vessels silenced. the world of microorganisms. AntONe portant aspect of Redi 's wo rk seems to , of organic soups-or infusionS-in Again. it was Pasteur in the 1860's van Leeuwenhoek had little formal be the introduction of the controlied which they were convinced spontaneous who propounded and ultimately proved education but an insatiable curiosity biological experiment-that is , one generation of microbes was a fact. to the world that microorganisms are concerning everything within his reach provides a situation in which one ex­ Shortly aft e.- Needham's experiments, Indeed the cause of t he natural and a craft for making and mounting pects to observe a particula r an Italian. Lazzaro Spallanzani (1776 ) phenomena of fermentation , putrefac­ lenses which never since has been phenomenon and another (the control I repeated them , using longer heating tion and decay and extended the can· equalled on the same principle. Our un · in which one thinks to have excluded periods and hermetically sealed (air­ cept to the very important principle derstanding of Leeuwen hoe k 's the occurence of the phenomenon if hi s tig ht ) vessels and reached thp "Ppo"' I'e thai for each type of chemical action microorganisms has had immeasurable theory is correct . conclusion. Although the controversy there is a specific microorganism . To influence on humanity's stale of health, For this experiment , Redl place.u continued unabated until Pasteur prevent these microbial changes he In ­ on economy and on the growth of meat into two vessels : one he left un · brought it to rest in the 1860's. I wo vented Pasteurization. population. covered, the other (the control) he useful principl es had evolved-the ~i cro bi o l ogica l principles were nOI Lee uwe nhoek communicated hi s covered with gaUrZe . Placing the vessels ubiquity of microorgani s ms in Ule applied to medicine until the la tt er part d iscover ies-n ol onl y of micro­ in the open. he observed that fli es were natural environment. especially in th e of the nineteenth century. although the organisms. but of such fundamental a ttracted to the vessels-lighting on the ai r. and their vulnerability to heat. e ig h teenth centu ry writings of biological characters as blood cells. meat in the uncovered one. but stopped Making practical application of Fracastoro and von Pleneiz of Haly spermatozoa, protozoa and the by the gauze over the covered one . Spallanzalll 's published expenments. speculate upon the microbial causes of capillary system-to the Royal Society Maggots soon appeared In the un · Praneois Appert , a Parisian cook, in disease, In 1847, an Austrian physician , of England in a series of leHers span­ covered meat but never in the covered, 1810 sealed fruits and vegetables In air· Ig nsz Semmelweiss. was appointed ning 50 years. but he did nOl leach his Observing liny specks on the gauze light containers and heated them, Thus assistant at a Iying·in hospita l in craft to others. over the covered vessle , Redi carried was founded the art of canning [or Vienna where the incidence of and mor ~ AJm ost a centurY later. in 1765. the experiment to its conclusion by wh ich the Inventor received an award tality from puel1>eral fever (chi ldbed Muller confirmed Leeuwenhoek's ob· shaking the gauze over the meat, which of 11.000 francs. Appert became a nch fever ) was unus uall y high . Sem· servations of bacteria. using a com· shortl y the r eafter teemed with man by establishing Ihe first commer · mel weiss noted that women in the clinic pound microscope. Even then. not the maggots. Thus he 'demonstrated the ci al canning plant which thri ved 111 his we re examined by interns directly after mere observation of microbial life . but stages in the life cycle of th e fl y-adult . fami ly for several generallons. instruction in obstetrics by the use of a scientific controversy ushered in the egg, and maggot (or larva ). Anuth er conI roversy which generated cadavers. He attempted to institute the miracul ous age of conquest of decay, No such simple experiment seemed a nswers to q uestions concerning practice of handwashing with soap_ disease and untimely death. The con­ applicable to the continuing con· l1atul-al phenomena had to do with wa ter and a so lution of chlorinated lime troversy raged over how living troversy over Ihe onglll of the micro­ causes of fermentallon. putrefaction. before examining a patient. AJthough creatures mysteriously came to th rive organisms_ The wor ld of mi cro­ and decay. Schwa IlIl , Cagn alrd ~ Lat o u r within two months the mortality rate in the carcasses of dead animals and organisms IS one Hf enormous num ­ and others In the early to middle dropped from almost 20 per cent to lit · plants or in any environment rich In bers-a ha ndful of so il contains a nineteenth century had deSCribed the tie more than 1 per cent , the practice. organic matler . microbial population as large as th e re production of yeast cell s III fermen· was well as the man. was extremely un · Belief in the existence of inV ISi bly human population of the world. Th e trng s ugar solUl lons and had attributed popular with the hospital staff a nd Sem­ small creatures dates back to ant iquity. Question of how to separate a Single the formation of alcohol 10 Ihelr mel weiss was fired. Unabl e to obtain a The Roman writers Yarra (second cen· kind of microorgallism from all oth ers metabolic activity. But the German pusillon 111 Vienna, he became a lec­ tury B.C. ) and Luc l-etius (about 75 and study it free from contamination by school of chemistry. headed by Justus turPr at th e Unive rsit y of Pest , B.C. ) discuss the possibility of con· the multitudes of its fell ows required Liebig. was so prestigious in the sden­ Hun gary . and obtained an unsalaried tagion by living creatures or seeds. the wol-k of many men ove r a period ur tific wo rld a nd so caustic III il s I'Idicule posilion In an obstetrics division in a Lucretius, especially. in his De RenJm some 200 years after Leeuwenhoek. uf the Idea that yeast cell s wel-e Ihe local hospital. There. under hiS super· Natun suggests that "just as Ihere are seeds helpful to our life. so. for sure. others fly about that cause disease and death ... These seeds or atoms were thought not to contain alllhe propertit!S of living organisms, but to be the beginnings of living things found in a variety of non· living substances. Worms specifically were cited as examples of living creatures which anyone could observe to "arise from stinking dung when the drenched ~arth becomes rott en from excessive raUlS. Th iS doctrine uf "spontaneous generatiun " ur abiul!enes is. was generally accepted without serious L-hallen~e for more than 1.500 years. In the latter half tlf the ~venteen th cen­ tun' men began to dispute the concept and iroused heated (.'Ontl'1lversy which inspired not only careful ubse-rvations of natural phenomenolla . but a resort to carefully dt."Signed and ('ontl"ollt.'d ex· perime ntal manipulatIOns . These ultimately not unl y rt"so lved the question of spontaneous ~en era li o n but led to discoveries basic to pUI-e culturt' technique. which is the foundation of the science of microbiology, The first serious challenge to the con· cept of abiogenesis was provided by seventeenth century poet ·physician world tha t a nthrax , a ravaging disease seek out a nd kill the parasite with little of livestock also infectious to humans , or no harm to the host. was caused by a bacterium. In his The age of miracle drugs actually report Oil anthrax , Koch proved the began in the late 1930s with the bacterial cause of disease a nd laid discovereis of Domagk and others on down prinCiples-Koch's postulates­ the effects of sulfa nilamide (derived for determ illlng causes of ot he r fro m the dye, pronlosil >' the fi rst sulfa diseases. drug . Woodl; a nd Fildes about 1940 At the Berlin I n~t1t u te , fo unded as the found the drug blocked an essent ial seat uf Koch's research activiti es, he me ta bolic functio n of the pa rasite and hiS multl--flallonai group of students which was not also a function of the developed most of the pure cult ure host .