You know all those drawings of human anatomy from the Italian Renaissance? And those baroque paintings of medical students huddled over cadavers? Those are nice to look at in museums, but you wouldn’t have wanted to be in those operating theaters. The doctors in those images had a dirty secret: no one washed their hands.
The Life-Changing Magic of Washing Up
As recently as the 1800s, people understood the causes of disease as bad vibes and polluted air. Fortunately, the wonders of medical progress have helped everyone from brain surgeons to waiters understand the simple power of soap and water to stop the spread of disease. Now we know that all diseases are the results of cells functioning abnormally. Learn the incredible true story of how the discover of cellular biology changed everything in our Instaread on The Song of the Cell.
