Concept
Pathogen
Overview
In biology, a pathogen (from Greek πάθος (pathos) 'suffering, passion' and -γενής (-genēs) 'producer of'), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism, agent or micro-organism that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ.
The term pathogen came into use in the 1880s. Typically, the term pathogen is used to describe an infectious microorganism or agent, such as a virus, bacterium, protozoan, prion, viroid, or fungus. Small animals, such as helminths and insects, can also cause or transmit disease. However, these animals are usually referred to as parasites rather than pathogens. The scientific study of microscopic organisms, including microscopic pathogenic organisms, is called microbiology, while parasitology refers to the scientific study of parasites and the organisms that host them.
There are several pathways through which pathogens can invade a host. The principal pathways have different episodic time frames, but soil has the longest or most persistent potential for harboring a pathogen.
Diseases in humans that are caused by infectious agents are known as pathogenic diseases. Not all diseases are caused by pathogens, such as black lung from exposure to the pollutant coal dust, genetic disorders like sickle cell disease, and autoimmune diseases like lupus.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
Usually the centrosome lies outside the nucleus, but is alleged to be sometimes within it. During what is called the "resting stage," or what might more properly be called the growing stage (for clearly the occasional divisions imply that in the intervals between them there has been increase) the centrosome remains quiescent, save in the respect that it exercises some coercive influence on the protoplasm around…
Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Biology, Volume 1
States what Pathogen is.
1. Of the homogeneous parts of animals, the blood is common to sanguineous animals; and so is the part in which it is contained, which is called a vein; analogous to these, in exsanguineous animals are the serum and the fibre. That which especially constitutes the body is flesh or its analogue: the bone and its analogue; the spine and the cartilage.
Aristotle, Aristotle's History of Animals In Ten Books
States what Pathogen is.
ORGANISM.—An organised being, whether plant or animal. ORTHOSPERMOUS.—A term applied to those fruits of the Umbelliferæ which have the seed straight. OSCULANT.—Forms or groups apparently intermediate between and connecting other groups are said to be osculant. OVA.—Eggs.
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
States what Pathogen is.
Related ideas
- Springer Science+Business Media
- Smallpox
- Antibiotic
- Virus
- Influenza
- Organism
- Nucleic acid
- Academic Press
- Nature (journal)
- Parasitism
- Oxford University Press
- Taylor & Francis
- DNA
- Biology
Place in the tradition
Part of Philosophy of medicine.