[Innovation in nineteenth century healthcare: disinfection stations].

The possibility of limiting and preventing epidemics by cleansing everything that could be touched by patients, was an intuitive thought well before microbial discoveries. In accordance with the "miasmas theory", morbid substances were emanated from the bodies of the patients. A step forward took place in the 19th century with Pasteur and Koch's discoveries and progress in chemical disinfectants. The law was slow to adapt: in Italy only in 1888 was a Code drawn up to establish some "Disinfection Stations", places for the sterilisation of infectious material from patients' homes. Later, a similar home service was started for everything that was not transportable. Thus, in the case of cholera, smallpox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhus, tuberculosis, etc. it became possible to sterilise everything with which patients came into contact.