Twee wetenschappelijke opnamen van cholera in gelatine before 1885

Here we see two scientific photographs of cholera in gelatine, crafted by Émile van Ermengem. Within these glass tubes, the cultivation of cholera germs becomes a stark symbol, laden with cultural and historical dread. The image of enclosed life, burgeoning within a contained space, echoes the iconography of Pandora's Box – a vessel holding both promise and potential catastrophe. Just as Pandora's jar unleashed unforeseen evils, these cultures embody the unseen threats that lurk in the microscopic world. Consider, too, the recurring motif of the serpent in human history, often linked to disease and knowledge. The cholera bacterium, though invisible to the naked eye, assumes a similar symbolic weight. It is the hidden danger, the coiled threat that invades and corrupts. These images, born of scientific inquiry, tap into humanity’s deepest fears and anxieties. They remind us that progress and peril are often intertwined, and that even the most rational pursuits cannot escape the shadow of the irrational. It is a cycle of progress and regression, hope and despair, that continues to shape our understanding of the world.