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Medicine in Europe and the United States

Koch's Postulates (formalized In 1882)



That the organism could be discoverable in every instance of the disease;

That, extracted from the body, the germ could be produced in a pure culture, maintainable over several microbial generations;

That the disease could be reproduced in experimental animals through a pure culture removed by numerous generations from the organisms initially isolated;

That the organism could be retrieved from the inoculated animal and cultured anew.

SOURCE: Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity, (New York and London: Harper Collins, 1997), p. 436.

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Science EncyclopediaScience & Philosophy: Mathematics to Methanal trimerMedicine in Europe and the United States - Ancient Greece And Rome, The Medieval World, Renaissance Medicine, The Harveian Revolution (seventeenth Century)