proceededto develophis antisepticsurgical methods. The immediatesuccess of
the new treatment led to its generaladoption, withresults of suchbeneficenceas
to makeit rankas one of the greatdiscoveriesof the age. Listeralso beganto
clean wounds and dressthemusing a solutionof carbolic acid.He was ableto
announce at a BritishMedicalAssociation meeting,in 1867, that his wardsat
the GlasgowRoyalInfirmary had remainedclearof sepsisfor ninemonths.
German surgeons werealsobeginning to practise antiseptic surgery, which
involved keepingwounds freefrommicroorganismsby the use of sterilised
instrumentsand materials.
The 1870sweresome of the happiest yearsof Lister's life, largelybecause of
the German experiments withantisepsis duringthe Franco-GermanWar. His
clinics werecrowdedwithvisitors and eagerstudents. Listermadea triumphal
tourof the leadingsurgical centresin Germanyin 1875. Herehe met Robert
Koch whodemonstratedin 1878the usefulness of steamfor sterilisingsurgical
instrumentsand dressings.
1.1.2 Foodbornediseasesand hygienesince 1850
Foodbornediseases
Public healthconcernwithfoodborne diseases emerged aroundthe 1880s.This
was aftermicroorganismshad beenfoundto be infectious agents.Kochand his
assistantsdevisedthe techniques for culturing bacteriaoutside the body, and
formulatedthe rulesfor showingwhether or not a bacteriumis the causeof a
disease (Koch, 1883).Before that timetwo typesof illness withfoodstuffswere
recognised:one associated withageing,and the other withfoodsnormallynot
causing illnessand apparently incapable of adulterationsuchas meat and fish.
The last typehad longbeenassociatedwithdecomposition;in the early19th
century it was thought to be due to chemical poisons,laterto ptomaines,^2 or
putrefactivealkaloids(Dewberry, 1959).Uncookedfruitand vegetableswere
also associatedwithupsetstomachs, but hereillnesswas generally attributed to
unripenessor acidity(Hardy, 1999).
It was not untilthe late 1880sthat the generictermfoodpoisoning' emerged: before this,and still occasionally for decadesthereafter, episodeswereusually describedby the precise itemof foodinvolved:cheese poisoning', meat poisoning',pork-piepoisoning', etc. Despite RobertKoch'sidentification of
specific organismscausingfoodborne diseases, suchas anthrax, in 1876(Koch,
1876)the abovetermsfor foodpoisoningremainin use and examples havebeen
describedby, among others, Durham(1898)and Peckham (1923±24) who
reported on respectivelyoutbreaks of meat poisoning and pork-piepoisoning.
- Foodpoisoning, erroneously believedto be the resultof ptomaineingestion.The wordptomaine
was inventedby the ItalianchemistSelmifor the basicsubstancesproduced in putrefaction.They
belongto severalclassesof chemicalcompoundsand are any of variousamines(suchas
putrescineor cadaverine) formedby the actionof putrefactive bacteria.
6 Handbookof hygienecontrolin the foodindustry