In prehistoric times it was believed that illness was the result of punishment from the gods or the consequence of magic. During the Middle Ages, people attributed disease to toxic vapors or decaying earth.

However in 1867 a scientist named Robert Koch discovered that anthrax is able to cause disease and was able to successfully transfer the germ from cows to mice. Since that time, bacteria have been implicated in an ever greater range of diseases.

Over the past few decades, scientists such as Lida Mattman, Alan Cantwell and Trevor Marshall have provided great evidence for the hypothesis that chronic diseases ranging from arthritis to Alzheimers are the result of bacterial infection. Nevertheless, a great majority of the medical community still feel that these diseases are caused by toxins in the environment or are autoimmune in nature.

Koch’s Postulates

After working with anthrax, Koch developed a series of ground rules to determine whether a given organism can cause a given disease. These rules, known as “Koch’s Postulates” state that a scientist must find the same microbe in every person with a given disease. Furthermore, the specific microbe must be able to be grown on pure culture medium in the lab and when reintroduced into a healthy animal or person must produce the disease again.

Robert Koch in his laboratory

Many researchers still believe that Koch’s rules are universal and correct despite the fact that a massive body of research has shown that the principles are outdated and can no longer be applied to a modern understanding of disease.

For example, in the early 19th century researchers realized that viruses invalidate Koch’s Postulate because they require another living cell in order to replicate. According to TD Brock at the American Society of Microbiology, attempts to rigidly apply Koch’s postulates to the diagnosis of viral diseases may have significantly impeded the early development of the field of virology.

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