Vermeer And Sterile Technique

Being trained as a bacteriologist, I couldn't help but notice Vermeer apparently sterilizing Griet's earlobe with what was probably alcohol and then heat sterilizing the lancet used to pierce it. I am sure that someone in history must have noted that parts of the body that had been washed in alcohol and then wounded, especially with a lancet that had been heat treated, tended to suffer less from inflammation. Of course, prior to the late 1600s no one had a clue about the existence of what we know know as the "microbial world", the collection of sub-optically sized bacteria, protozoans, fungi, nematode worms, and rotifers. Interestingly enough, it was a close neighbor of Vermeer in Delft, a cloth merchant named Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who first used simple microscopes he built himself to discover and explore these microorganisms, paving the way for sterile surgical techniques, although the germ theory of disease was not confirmed by observation until the work of Pasteur and Robert Koch in the 19th century. It has been alleged that van Leeuwenhoek was closely enough acquainted with the Vermeer family to serve as one of the executors of Johannes Vermeer's will.

By another amazing coincidence, both Vermeer and van Leeuwenhoek were born in Delft the same year, 1632, so conceivably have known each other since childhood. Vermeer died relatively young in 1675, whereas van Leeuwenhoek lived another 48 years, dying in 1723, at age 90 years, an amazing longevity in those days of rampant epidemic disease, poor sanitation, and primitive medical practices. According to the Wikipedia article on van Leeuwenhoek, he may have modeled for a couple of Vermeer paintings.