Veterinary Clinical Medicine-I (General and Systemic)

PASTEUR, LISTER, KOCH AND THE GERM THEORY

The germ theory viewed diseases in terms of a causal network similar to that of Fracastoro, but with much more detail about the nature of germs and possible treatments. The Hippocratics were largely confined to a taxonomy of diseases in terms of symptoms, and Fracastoro' theory allowed only a limited causal classification based on kinds of contagion; but the germ theory of disease made possible a detailed and clinically powerful taxonomy of diseases in terms of their microbial causes. Today, infectious diseases are typically classified as bacterial (e.g. tuberculosis,), viral (e.g. herpes), protozoal (e.g. trypanosomes), and so on.