[Darwin and bacteria].
As in 2009 the scientific world celebrates two hundreds years from the birthday of Charles Darwin and one hundred and fifty from the publication of The Origin of Species, an analysis of his complete work is performed, looking for any mention of bacteria. But it seems that the great naturahst never took knowledge about its existence, something rather improbable in a time when the discovery of bacteria shook the medical world, or he deliberately ignored them, not finding a place for such microscopic beings into his theory of evolution. But the bacteria badly affected his familiar life, killing scarlet fever one of his children and worsening to death the evolution of tuberculosis of his favourite Annie. Darwin himself could suffer the sickness of Chagas, whose etiological agent has a similar level to bacteria in the scale of evolution.
Laboratorio de Microbiología, Hospital Luis Calvo Mackenna, Santiago, Chile. oncemayor@gmail.com
Walter
W
Ledermann D
D001419:Bacteria; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000266:history; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005197:Famous Persons; D049672:History, 19th Century