Bacterial Transformation and the Origins of Epidemics in the Interwar Period: The Epidemiological Significance of Fred Griffith’s “Transforming Experiment” (2015)
Méthot, Pierre-Olivier (Author)
Journal of the History of Biology
Volume: 49
Issue: 2
Pages: 311-358
Frederick Griffith (1879–1941) was an English bacteriologist at the Pathological Laboratory of the Ministry of Health in London who believed that progress in the epidemiology and control of infectious diseases would come only with more precise knowledge of the identity of the causative microorganisms. Over the years, Griffith developed and expanded a serological technique for identifying pathogenic microorganisms, which allowed the tracing of the sources of infectious disease outbreaks: slide agglutination. Yet Griffith is not remembered for his contributions to the biology and epidemiology of infectious diseases so much as for discovering the phenomenon known as ‘transformation’. Griffith’s discovery, for many, was a pure case of serendipity whose biological relevance had also largely escaped him. In this paper, I argue that the key to understanding the significance of bacterial transformation – and the scientific legacy of Fred Griffith – rests not only on it initiating a cascade of events leading to molecular genetics but also on its implications for epidemiology based on the biology of host–parasite interactions. Looking at Griffith’s entire career, instead of focusing only on the transformation study, we can better appreciate the place of the latter within Griffith’s overall contributions. Presented in this way, Griffith’s experiment on bacterial transformation also ceases to appear as an anomaly, which in turn leads us to rethink some of the most prevalent historical conceptions about his work.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Alcalá Ferráez, Carlos;
(2012)
De miasmas a mosquitos: el pensamiento médico sobre la fiebre amarilla en Yucatán, 1890--1920
(/isis/citation/CBB001420572/)
Article
Pierre-Olivier Méthot;
Rachel Mason Dentinger;
(2016)
Ecology and Infection: Studying Host-Parasite Interactions at the Interface of Biology and Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB232099717/)
Book
Porras Gallo, María Isabel;
María Isabel / Báguena Cervellera, María José / Ayarzagüena Sanz, Mariano / Martín Espinosa, Noelia María Porras Gallo;
Ayarzagüena Sanz, Mariano;
Noelia María Martín Espinosa;
(2016)
La erradicación y el control de las enfermedades infecciosas
(/isis/citation/CBB703301554/)
Article
Mathias Schütz;
(2020)
Hygiene und Historiographie: Karl Kisskalts epidemiologischer Revisionismus und das Erbe Max von Pettenkofers (Hygiene and historiography: Karl Kisskalt's epidemiological revisionism and the legacy of Max von Pettenkofer)
(/isis/citation/CBB408049525/)
Article
Chastel, Claude;
(2007)
Le centenaire de la découverte du vibrion d'El Tor (1905) ou les débuts incertains de la septième pandémie du choléra
(/isis/citation/CBB000931829/)
Book
Andrew Lakoff;
(2017)
Unprepared: Global Health in a Time of Emergency
(/isis/citation/CBB434578273/)
Thesis
Gross, Miriam Dara;
(2010)
Chasing Snails: Anti-Schistosomiasis Campaigns in the People's Republic of China
(/isis/citation/CBB001562747/)
Book
Gaudillière, Jean-Paul;
Löwy, Ilana;
(2001)
Heredity and Infection: The History of Disease Transmission
(/isis/citation/CBB000101679/)
Article
Jr., James L. A. Webb;
(2022)
Historical Epidemiology and the Single Pathogen Model of Epidemic Disease
(/isis/citation/CBB511114157/)
Article
Beldarraín Chaple, Enrique;
(2015)
A Battle Won: The Elimination of Poliomyelitis in Cuba
(/isis/citation/CBB001552759/)
Article
Lyle Fearnley;
(2010)
Epidemic Intelligence. Langmuir and the Birth of Disease Surveillance
(/isis/citation/CBB273735501/)
Book
Katerina Gardikas;
(2018)
Landscapes of Disease: Malaria in Modern Greece
(/isis/citation/CBB477202472/)
Article
Suzuki, Akihito;
(2011)
Smallpox and the Epidemiological Heritage of Modern Japan: Towards a Total History
(/isis/citation/CBB001230163/)
Book
Thomas Rath;
(2022)
The Dread Plague and the Cow Killers: The Politics of Animal Disease in Mexico and the World
(/isis/citation/CBB421958541/)
Article
Vigue, Charles L.;
(1984)
Oswald Avery and DNA
(/isis/citation/CBB000007073/)
Book
Hänseler, Marianne;
(2009)
Metaphern unter dem Mikroskop: Die epidemische Rolle von Metaphorik in den Wissenschaften und in Robert Kochs Bakteriologie
(/isis/citation/CBB001220064/)
Article
George Dehner;
(July 2018)
Legionnaires’ Disease: Building a Better World for You
(/isis/citation/CBB422956787/)
Article
Claas Kirchhelle;
(2020)
The Forgotten Typers: The Rise and Fall of Weimar Bacteriophage-Typing (1921–1935)
(/isis/citation/CBB187011632/)
Article
Steere-Williams, Jacob;
(2015)
Performing State Medicine During its `Frustrating' Years: Epidemiology and Bacteriology at the Local Government Board, 1870--1900
(/isis/citation/CBB001551012/)
Article
Christos Lynteris;
(2019)
Pestis Minor: The History of a Contested Plague Pathology
(/isis/citation/CBB470982762/)
Be the first to comment!