Daniel Defoe on Microbes.
The microbe theory is older than would be generally supposed. It seems to have been a shrewd guess of scientists before tbe dn y.-s of bacteriology. Dofoe, in bits "Journal of the Plague," published in 1722, wrote: — "Home there are who talk of infection beiiu,' carried on by the air only, by carrying with it vast numbers of insects and invisible creatures, who enter into the body with the breath or even at the pores with tbe air, and these generate or emit most acute poisons, or poisonous ovro, or eggs, which mingle themselves with the blood, and ho infect the body. ... I have heard that the plague taint might be distinguished by the party's breathing upon a piece of glass, where, the breath coudensing, there might living creatures be seen, by a microscope, of strange, monstrous and frightful shapes, such as dragons, snakes, serpents nnd devils, horrible to behold ; but this I very much question tho truth of, and we had no microscope at that time, as I remember, to make the experiment with.
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Southland Times, Issue 19264, 30 January 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)
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179Daniel Defoe on Microbes. Southland Times, Issue 19264, 30 January 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)
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