Microbiology and Immunology: Parent and (Adult) Offspring
Abstract
Microbiology and Immunology: Parent and (Adult) Offspring Henry D. Isenberg * The Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New Hyde Park, and The Mount Sinai Medical Center and Medical School, New York, New York One of the major forces, if not the major force, that propelled the evolution and growth of microbiology as a scientific discipline has been and remains the effort to understand and to alleviate disease related to the incursion of “foreign” microorganisms into humans, domestic animals, and crops. The concern about disease has been a real presence in all of recorded history; long before the microbial and viral role in infection was discerned, Girolamo Fracastoro (1478–1553)—forgotten or, at best, neglected—described contagion as an infection that was transmitted from one individual to another. Indeed, he listed three forms of contagion—contact, fomites, and airborne—omitting only disease agents carried by insect vectors but postulating a form of seed or “germ” as the vehicle responsible for transmission. Parenthetically, Fracastoro coined the term “syphilis” in a poem describing the clinical manifestations of this disease. The 19th century could be described as the age of microbial discovery with the recognition, isolation, and detailed description of many of