A germ is a colloquial term for a micro-organism that causes disease, such as certain bacteria and viruses. They are parasites which live by invading living things.
Roman statesman Marcus Varro wrote in 36 BC about germs, describing "minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which...enter the body through the mouth and nose and there cause serious diseases." The germ theory of disease would not be accepted widely for another 1,900 years.
For many centuries the prevailing belief was that disease was spread by poisonous vapours called "miasmas", but in 1856 French chemist Louis Pasteur demonstrated that infection is carried by germs.
At the Sorbonne Louis Pasteur once showed the audience lantern slides of different germs then he darkened the hall and fired a bright beam of light through the blackness exposing the specks of dust that sometimes carry such diseases as cholera and yellow fever. The audience went home much troubled.
More germs are transferred by shaking hands than by kissing.
Roman statesman Marcus Varro wrote in 36 BC about germs, describing "minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which...enter the body through the mouth and nose and there cause serious diseases." The germ theory of disease would not be accepted widely for another 1,900 years.
For many centuries the prevailing belief was that disease was spread by poisonous vapours called "miasmas", but in 1856 French chemist Louis Pasteur demonstrated that infection is carried by germs.
At the Sorbonne Louis Pasteur once showed the audience lantern slides of different germs then he darkened the hall and fired a bright beam of light through the blackness exposing the specks of dust that sometimes carry such diseases as cholera and yellow fever. The audience went home much troubled.
More germs are transferred by shaking hands than by kissing.
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