Hand washing as a way of preventing viral disease. Infectious diseases were well described in ancient times although their etiologic origin was not discovered until centuries later. We can follow the history of virology through the knowledge developed over thousands of years about one viral disease, rabies. Rabies is a highly lethal disease. No treatment is available once symptoms develop.
Fever is common as is autonomic system dysfunction.
The relation of the disease to dog bites was described by Aristotle and others. A.D. Celsus linked the disease to the saliva of rabid dogs and demonstrated that immediate cleansing of the wound could prevent disease. Centuries later, Zincke, in 1804, proved Celsus theory. He took the saliva from a rabid dog and inoculated it into wounds artificially created in healthy dogs and observed the development of rabies in these animals. He took some of this weakened material and injected it, over 13 days, into a young boy bitten in 14 places by a rabid dog and prevented the disease.