Using History to teach Science
Beri-Beri
The quest for a cause & cure
Introduction
Observation: It is the late 1800s. A disease is killing millions throughout the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), a colony of the Netherlands. The Dutch wanted to find the cause of this dreaded disease so they might also be able to find a cure. You are part of their team!
Symptoms:
weight loss
impaired sensory perceptoin
pain in the limbs
shuffling gait
edema (swelling of bodily tissues)
Relevant Observations - Louis Pasteur, a French chemist and microbiologist, has just made significant breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases. His discoveries have supported the germ theory of disease and he has created vaccines for rabies and anthrax. He has also demonstrated that through the process of pasteurization, milk and wine can be ridded of micro-organisms that cause disease.
