Functionality
For the growth of bacteria, there must be a food supply, moisture, oxygen (if the bacteria is an obligate aerobe), and a certain minimum temperature (see bacteriology). These conditions have been studied and dealt with in food preservation and the ancient practice of embalming the dead, which is the earliest known systematic use of antiseptics.
In early inquiries before there was an understanding of microbes, much emphasis was given to the prevention of putrefaction, and procedures were carried out to determine the amount of agent that was to be added to a given solution in order to prevent the development of pus and putrefaction; however, due to a lack of a developed understanding of germ theory this method was inaccurate and, today, an antiseptic is judged by its effect on pure cultures of a defined microbe and/or their vegetative and spore forms. The standardization of antiseptics has been implemented in many instances, and a water solution of phenol of a certain fixed strength is now used as the standard to which other antiseptics are compared.
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