Pasteur, Koch, and Germs Part 1: Seeds vs. Soil, References

people would speak of the “virus” of a disease: E.g., Jenner used the term “virus” to describe the disease-causing agent taken from horses sick with the grease, which he believed was ultimately responsible for smallpox. Creighton, Charles. Jenner and Vaccination: A Strange Chapter in Medical History. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1889. p.51.

This do I say, as oft I’ve said before: Lucretius Carus, Titus. De Rerum Natura. c. 50 bc. Translated by William Ellery Leonard. Accessed September 21, 2025. Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250511004425/https://classics.mit.edu/Carus/nature_things.6.vi.html. See also, https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0131%3Abook%3D6%3Acard%3D769

It is possible that the idea of seeds of disease goes back: Nutton, Vivian. The Seeds of Disease: An Explanation of Contagion and Infection from the Greeks to the Renaissance. Medical History, 1983.

Both Plutarch and Diogenianus thus favoured a: Nutton. The Seeds of Disease.

Precautions must also be taken in the neighbourhood of swamps: Varro. Rerum Rusticarum de Agri Cultura. 37 bc. Book 1, Chapter 12. Quoted from: Hempelmann, Ernst and Kristine Krafts. Bad air, amulets and mosquitoes: 2,000 years of changing perspectives on malaria. Malaria Journal, 2013.

For the Latin text, see: https://web.archive.org/web/20250927002635/https://www.r-site.org/f_lat/varro/varro_rerum_rusticarum.pdf

See also: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Varro/de_Re_Rustica/1*.html

in the late second century, the famous Anatolian physician Galen: Nutton. The Seeds of Disease.

Isidore of Seville gave an etymology: Isidore of Seville. The Etymologies. c. 620 ad. Translated to English by Stephen A. Barney, W.J. Lewis, J.A. Beach, and Oliver Berghof. Cambridge University Press, 2006. p.110.

“plague-bearing seeds” (Latin pestifera semina rerum): Nutton. The Seeds of Disease. p.19.

almost nonexistent in the Middle Ages, except for the works of Dino del Garbo and his son Tommaso del Garbo: Nutton. The Seeds of Disease.

In the year 1417, a copy of On the Nature of Things by Lucretius was tracked down and discovered by Poggio Bracciolini. That document was brought to Florence and copies were made of it by Niccolò de’ Niccoli for the sake of its preservation and distribution. In 1473, that poem by Lucretius was being printed: Beretta, Marco. The Revival of Lucretian Atomism and Contagious Diseases During the Renaissance. Medicina nei Secoli Arte e Scienza, 2003.

Inspired by Lucretius, it was a Venetian Atomist named Girolamo Fracastoro: Nutton. The Seeds of Disease.

invisibly small, rapidly multiplying creatures that passed from person to person: “Girolamo Fracastoro.” Encyclopedia Britannica.

The disease known as syphilis: “Girolamo Fracastoro.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed September 21, 2025. Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250806152147/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Girolamo-Fracastoro

In August of 1674, the Dutch microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek: First observed little animals in water. Lens on Leeuwenhoek. Accessed September 21, 2025. Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250521114759/https://lensonleeuwenhoek.net/content/first-observed-microbes

Fracastoro worked at the University of Padua: “Girolamo Fracastoro.” Encyclopedia Britannica.

in 1714, Carlo Francesco Cogrossi: “Cogrossi, Carlo Francesco.” Encyclopedia.com. Accessed September 21, 2025. Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240721225637/https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/cogrossi-carlo-francesco

his 1762 book: “Slovenia.” Encyclopedia.com. Accessed September 21, 2025. Archived at https://www.encyclopedia.com/places/spain-portugal-italy-greece-and-balkans/former-yugoslavian-political-geography/slovenia

Nightingale, Florence. Notes on Nursing. Harrison and Sons, 1860.

“The ancient medical theory:

Vallery-Radot, René. Louis Pasteur: His Life and Labours. D. Appleton and Company. 1885. Translated from French by Claud Hamilton. p.177.

Bastian, H. Charlton. The Germ-Theory of Disease: Being a Discussion of the Relation of Bacteria and Allied Organisms to Virulent Inflammations and Specific Contagious Fevers. British Medical Journal, 1875.

Florence Nightingale’s interpretation of her own experiences is even inconsistent with germ theory: It should be noted that Florence Nightingale was actually very opposed to germ theory, as documented by Sam Bailey in her video essay titled “Florence vs The Germ Machine” for extensive support of this proposition. Today’s germ theorists engage in revisionist history by painting Nightingale as an proponent of germ theory, when she was anything but.

Even Louis Pasteur himself is recorded describing at least one disease using terrain theory: The Pasteur Institute itself, started by Louis Pasteur himself, states that Pasteur attributed the silkworm disease to flacherie to a problem of “specific terrain.” The middle years 1862-1877. The Pasteur Institute. Accessed 9/29/2025. Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250926081336/https://www.pasteur.fr/en/institut-pasteur/history/middle-years-1862-1877

the claim that terrain theory is “pseudoscientific”: The Wikipedia page titled “Germ theory denialism,” for example, states that it’s pseudoscientific to question whether diseases are caused by germs. Apparently questioning things and not just putting blind faith in what we’re taught from youth is considered unscientific now. Again we see that religion scientism masquerading as science.

And indeed, this is what was believed for a long time: This isn’t a controversial point, but see, for example: Roytas, Daniel. Can You Catch A Cold? 2024. p.23ff.

Beriberi was described at least as far back as: Bailey, Samantha and Mark Bailey. The Final Pandemic. 2024. p.68.

the history of pellagra: Baileys. The Final Pandemic. p.70-73.

in 1912, a professor of pathology named Guido Tizzoni: Baileys. The Final Pandemic. p.70-73.

People were so fearful of catching pellagra: Roytas. Can You Catch A Cold? p.26.

The Baileys point to one physician who, also in 1912, claimed that there was a “decidedly favorable effect” when he gave his pellagra patients arsenic: Baileys. The Final Pandemic. p.72.

Roytas found a different physician making the same claim about arsenic, with the treatment going on until the 1930s. Roytas also found another physician who recommended bichloride of mercury for the condition: Roytas. Can You Catch A Cold? p.26.