TRACES OF SIMPLE ORAN TEORY IN EUROPE in 18t CENTURYA

microorganism is a creature that is too small to see with the naked eye. A microorganism is
therefore a very small organism. We usually need a microscope to see these little "bugs."

The 19th century French scientist, Louis Pasteur, was instrumental in increasing our
understanding of microorganisms. Since microorganisms were often found in the presence of
disease, he propounded the idea that they were the cause of diseasethe so-called germ
theory. Pasteur also developed the technique named after him called pasteurization, whereby a
liquid (such as milk) is partially sterilized by heat in order to destroy objectionable
microorganisms.

Claude Bernard, a contemporary of Pasteur, maintained that the cause of disease was the "soil,
terrain(Milieu intrieur), the human bodyrather than the "germ"the microorganism.
Bernard said that pathological microorganisms are opportunistic and merely take advantage of
an unhealthy condition in the body. Bernard and Pasteur were engaged in a lifelong argument
on this point. It wasn't until Pasteur was on his deathbed that he conceded, "It is the soil."

Less known is that several of Pasteurs contemporaries refuted his idea that germs cause
disease. Claude Bernard, a colleague and physiologist of that era, resolved that the health of the
individual was determined by her internal environment. The terrain is everything, he wrote;
the germ is nothing. Other scientists tested Bernards theory. Elie Metchnikoff, a Russian
immunologist a generation younger than Bernard and Pasteur, suggested that a synergistic
interaction exists between bacteria and its host. He, too, claimed that germs were not the
problem. To prove it, he consumed cultures containing millions of cholera bacteria; he lived to
write about it, and didnt even get sick.

His contemporary, French chemist and biologist Antoine Bechamp, also believed that a healthy
body would be immune to harmful bacteria, and only a weakened body could harbor harmful
bacteria. His research contributed to this understanding when he discovered that there were
living organisms in our bodies called microzymas, which essentially form into healthy cells in the
healthy body and morph into unhealthy cells when the terrain is less than ideal. The conclusion:
Germs do not invade us, but rather are grown within us when there is diseased tissue to live
on.

Rudolf Virchow, another 19th-century scientist (dubbed the Father of Pathology), wrote, If I
could live my life over again, I would devote it to proving that germs seek their natural habitat
diseased tissue rather than being the cause of diseased tissue; e.g. mosquitoes seek the
stagnant water, but do not cause the pool to become stagnant.

The question then becomes, what creates sickness and illness? Is it the germs or is it an
unhealthy body? It has been said that on Pasteurs deathbed, he admitted that Bernard was
right and he, Pasteur, was wrong. Nonetheless, an era of antibiotic drugs, chemical pesticides
and herbicides, vaccines and antibacterial soaps has ensued, resulting in a germphobic society
and a pharmaceutical empire to lead the attack. But even worse, all of these weapons have
interfered with the bodys natural microbiome and impaired our immunity.

Today, most conventional medical professionals still cling to the "germ theory."
Most holistic health care professionals, on the other hand, consider the "soil" to be the most
important factor in disease. This is perhaps the major dividing point between these two
approaches. As a result of this difference, conventional medicine men are always trying to
eradicate the "germs" with chemical "pesticides" such as antibiotics, while holistic practitioners
attempt to improve the health of the individualparticularly with regard to the immune system
so that the "soil" will be less conducive to the growth of pathological microorganisms and the
person's own body will be able to prevent and fight off disease as it was designed to.

Getting back to our lesson: The above story introduces several additional word elements that I
should mention. The word pesticide contains the word element -cid which means "to kill."
When we realize that the word element sui- means "self," we better understand the word
"suicide."

What does the word germicide mean?