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In the 19th century, in order to prove that "dirtyness" causes cholera, a man named Pettenkofer drank a vial of clear water contaminated with cholera. Fortunate
by jacobwilliamroy 7y ago
In the 19th century, in order to prove that "dirtyness" causes cholera, a man named Pettenkofer drank a vial of clear water contaminated with cholera. Fortunately he attempted to control the experiment by neutralizing his stomach acids beforehand, which prevented the cholera from becoming pathogenic. The colony passed through his digestive tract without incident.
- skyyler 7y agoHe neutralised his stomach acids to keep the V. cholerae alive, actually. They didn't pass through him without incident, every account of this story I can find notes that he did get sick. The modern perspective of the story seems to be that he had an immunity from previously having dealt with cholera.
- jacobwilliamroy 7y agoThe story I heard was that Cholera automatically stops reproducing if its population gets high enough, and that keeping the cholera alive prevented it from spreading.