Changes

The '''Germ theory of disease''', developed in the 1860s and 1870s by [[Louis Pasteur]], states that [[microorganisms|tiny "living beings"]] are the cause of infectious diseases. [http://www.mansfield.ohio-state.edu/~sabedon/biol2007.htm#sta20005.htm#microorganism]

The '''Germ theory of disease''', developed in the 1860s and 1870s by [[Louis Pasteur]], states that [[microorganisms|tiny "living beings"]] are the cause of infectious diseases.<ref>[http://www.mansfield.ohio-state.edu/~sabedon/biol2007.htm#sta20005.htm#microorganism]</ref>

The theory was developed to explain puerperal fever, or [[Child bed fever]].<ref>[http://www.harvestfields.ca/HerbBooks/01/12bk/01/170.htm]</ref> Beginning sometime in the nineteenth century, science began replacing the millennial old practice of midwifery, and physicians began delivering babies in hospitals.  Puerperal fever was  transmitted from patient to patient on the hands of the attending physician, and both women and the new born frequently died within days. Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, using the controversial theory of microscopic organisms tinier than the eye could see was the first to insist that all practitioners must wash their hands before having contact with women in childbed, and Joseph Lister, who first introduced antisepsis into surgical practice.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3686/is_200304/ai_n9213545]</ref>

The theory was developed to explain puerperal fever, or [[Child bed fever]].<ref>[http://www.harvestfields.ca/HerbBooks/01/12bk/01/170.htm]</ref> Beginning sometime in the nineteenth century, science began replacing the millennial old practice of midwifery, and physicians began delivering babies in hospitals.  Puerperal fever was  transmitted from patient to patient on the hands of the attending physician, and both women and the new born frequently died within days. Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, using the controversial theory of microscopic organisms tinier than the eye could see was the first to insist that all practitioners must wash their hands before having contact with women in childbed, and Joseph Lister, who first introduced antisepsis into surgical practice.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3686/is_200304/ai_n9213545]</ref>