History of Silver Use
The use of silver as an antibacterial agent can be traced to antiquity. Some of the antimicrobial uses of silver throughout the history of humanity include:
- Pliny the Elder’s encyclopedia of ancient knowledge, Naturalis Historia, describes the use of silver slag in plasters to “promote the cicatrization of wounds” and as an ingredient in medications for the removal of “fleshy excrescences” and ulcers.
- Alexander the Great was advised by Aristotle to store boiled water in silver vessels for use on his military campaigns, a technique also used by Cyrus the Great, King of Persia.
- In De ulceribus, Hippocrates prescribed “flowers of silver alone, in the finest powder” as a treatment for ulcers.
- Vikings were known to line the hulls of their ships with strips of silver and copper to prevent growth of barnacles.
- In plague-ravaged midieval Europe, the wealthy would given their chidren silver spoons to suck on to ward of disease. This may have been the origin of the saying "born with a silver spoon in his mouth".
- South-Amrican gauchos have a long tradition of using silver straws to drink mate as a way of preventing microbial growth.
- American pioneers placed silver coins in their milk jugs to delay spoilage.
- The antimicrobial effect of silver even at very low concentrations was first described by Ravelin in 1869.
- In 1881, Carl Crede pioneered the current use of silver nitrate solutions for the prevention of eye infections in newborns.
- In the twentieth century, Halsted, an American surgeon, advocated the use of silver foil for wound dressings, and silver sutures were often used in surgical incisions to prevent infections.
- The early twentieth century also saw the extended use of silver for ophthalmologic treatment. Silver was also then succesfully used in colloidal form for the treatment of infected corneal ulcers, interstitial keratitis, blepharitis, and dacrocystitis.