History of Microbiology

HISTORY OF MICROBIOLOGY:

Definition of Microbiology:

Microbiology is the branch of science which mainly deals with the study of living organisms such as virus, bacteria and fungi etc.

Microorganisms has an interesting past history. During the thirteenth century Roger Bacon suggested that disease is induced by invisible living organisms. Similar suggestion was made by Fracastoro of Verona (1483-1553) and von Plenciz (1762) without any evidence.

But in the mean time in 1658 Kircher designated the disease inducing living organisms as ‘worms’, which according to him are invisible to the naked eye. It was Kircher who first recognized the importance of micro­organisms in disease development. But Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) was the first person to report descriptions of microorganisms in detail.

His discovery brought inspiration to many workers to take interest in the origin of living things. The concept of origin of animals spontaneously from the soil, plants, or other unlike animals spon­sored by Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was still accepted in the seventeenth century.

In course of time John Needham (1713-1781), Lazaro Spallanzani (1729-1799), Franz Schulze, (1815-1873) and Zheodor Schwann (1810-1882), Pouchet (1859) spoke for and against the theory that living things can originate spontaneously.

Finally Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) through his series of experiments proved his germ theory by establishing the fact that different germs came into the world from their parent germs and germs induce various diseases which was suggested by earlier workers.

He also founded that fermentation of fruits and grains, resulting in alcohol, was brought about by microbes. Today the pasteurization process, widely used in fermentation indus­tries, is the contribution of Pasteur. Pasteur also tackled the problem of anthrax—a disease of cattle, sheep, and sometimes human beings. In the meantime Robert Koch (1843-1910) was busy with the anthrax problem in Germany.

It was he who discovered the typical bacilli responsible for the anthrax disease of cattle and this was the first time a bacterium had been proved to be the cause of an animal disease.