ABSTRACT
The essence of research on germ-free life is isolation. Any isolation must be attained
mechanically, proven scientifically, and understood philosophically. As early as 1885,
Louis Pasteur declared that the concept of a multicellular life free of all demonstrable
living microbes could be looked upon as “mission impossible.” Germ-free animal research
began when Nuttal and Thierfelder in 1895/96 (1) succeeded in keeping a small number of
Caesarean-derived guinea pigs alive and germ-free for more than a week. From their work,
one can see that the major elements of germ-free research are similar today. They
described how to determine the time for partition; developed anesthetic procedures that
would not too adversely affect the offspring; and worked out procedures of aseptic
Cesarean section and transfer of the offspring from the uterus into a sterile environment
and sterilization procedures for food, water, and air, as well as proper methods for testing
the sterility of the isolator.
