Health & biology · 1861

Germ theory of disease

Pasteur showed microbes come from other microbes, not from spoiled matter itself.

Pasteur's swan-neck flask experiments disproved spontaneous generation around 1861, and with Koch's later work established that specific microbes cause specific diseases. It transformed surgery, sanitation and public health, and life expectancy rose steeply in the decades that followed.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Handwashing in hospitals 1847
Microorganisms discovered 1676

What it led to 5

Pasteurization 1864
Antiseptic surgery 1867
Koch's bacteriology 1876
Panama Canal 1914
Oral rehydration therapy 1968

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Life expectancy in the UK since 1543 Latest: 81.3 years (2023) Source: Our World in Data

Child mortality (under 5) Latest: 3.74 % (2024) Source: Our World in Data

Maternal mortality in the UK since 1847 Latest: 9.84 deaths per 100,000 births (2020) Source: Our World in Data