Community Magazine December 2013

THE SUBJECT OF MEDICINE AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF HEALING WERE WELL KNOWN IN ANCIENT TIMES. THE TALMUD MENTIONS CURES FOR A LONG LIST OF MALADIES, INCLUDING AT LEAST ONE CURE THAT IS MORE ADVANCED THAN WHAT MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY OFFERS TODAY. IT DESCRIBES ATYPE OF SURGERY TO REMOVE A BRAIN TUMOR, IN WHICH A DRUG WAS GIVEN TO THE PATIENT TO PUT HIM TO SLEEPAND AMIXTURE OF HERBS WAS BOILED, COOLED, AND POURED ON THE PATIENT’S HEAD UNTIL HIS SKULL BECAME SOFT, ALLOWING IT TO BE CUT OPEN AND THE GROWTH REMOVED. TWO MILLENNIA BEFORE MRIS AND CT SCANS, MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS HAD A WAY TO DETERMINE THE EXACT LOCATION OF A BRAIN TUMOR AND AN INCREDIBLY DETAILED UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN ANATOMY. U nfortunately, many, if not all, of those remedies were specific to that era, and with passage of time, directions for their use were forgotten, along with much of the medical wisdom alluded to in the Talmud. In recent centuries, however, we have seen remarkable advances in the field of medicine. Before the microscope revealed to us the hidden world of bacteria, physicians never dreamt that creatures existed that were invisible to the naked eye. The size of average bacteria is about two microns by half a micron (a micron being a millionth of a meter, or a millionth of 39.37 inches). This means that laid end to end, there are 500,000 bacteria in a meter (or in 39.37 inches), or 2,000,000 lying side by side. The first step towards discovering the existence of bacteria was taken by the Dutch scientist Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), using an early form of microscope which he helped develop. This was a simple brass plate fitted with a single polished lens capable of magnifying 200 times. Despite its relatively weak power, it allowed Leeuwenhoek to discern tiny creatures moving within materials taken from between people’s teeth. But it was only in the second half of the 19th century that the existence of bacteria and their role as vectors of disease was finally verified. The famous French scientist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) was the most important 19th century researcher of microorganisms and their relationship to various diseases. After discovering the existence of bacteria, Pasteur introduced disinfectant methods into hospitals and clinics to rid them of these invisible menaces. Prior to Pasteur’s work, a single dirty scalpel might have been used to perform multiple surgeries, unwittingly transferring bacteria fromone patient to another, thus resulting in an extremely high death rate among surgery patients. No one had previously drawn a connection between the bacteria- laden instruments and patient deaths. After Pasteur introduced his disinfectant methods, patient death rates dropped sharply. Continuing his research, Pasteur found that heat could destroy harmful bacterial present in cow’s milk. As a result of this discovery, millions of infants previously unable to breastfeed were saved from death. The process he developed was subsequently named after him – pasteurization . It has been less than 150 years since scientists made the following important discoveries: The existence of bacteria. The fact that bacteria cause and transmit disease through the blood or other bodily secretions of an infected patient. The fact that bacteria can be destroyed by heat. (Another recent discovery has shown that high body temperature brought on by infections itself serves to destroy bacteria within the body.) BACTERIA and Infectious Diseases RABBI ZAMIR COHEN 66 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE