"M. G. Devour" wrote: > I know we've had this discussion before... > > The following is a long message quoting material (from the Materia > Medica, I believe) that was published in 1916... > > http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/m1263.html > > The salient point is in the last paragraph: > > > Notice no where is there the word antibiotic. This wasn't mentioned > > once in the entire book. It wasn't in their repertoire' nor in > > science. The things that they knew might hinder infections and > > speed healing in these cases were called antiseptics and astringents.
I wonder how that meshes with Webster's claim that the word dates back to 1894. Were the usages local? Doesn't seem likely with a 20 year time frame for the usage to spread. Was the original meaning cooped and redefined by the microbiologists (or whatever they were then) after 1916? Interesting topic. Marshall -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. Instructions for unsubscribing may be found at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
