HISTORY OF

MICROBIOLOGY

SPONTANEOUS GENERATION

VERSUS BIOGENESIS

Spontaneous generation states that life develops from

inanimate objects such as soil, plants, stones etc.

States that air is the sole cause of life.

Unable to be determined and actually confirmed through

experimentation

Theory of Biogenesis states that life develops from pre-

existing life.

Popular among scientists, and often proven through

experimentation.

DISCOVERY ERA

Aristotle(384-322 BC) and others believed that living

organisms could be developed from non-living materials

Antony Van Leeuwenhoek(1632-1723 AD)

Father of Bacteriology and Protozoology

First to report his observations with accurate descriptions

and drawings

Descriptions of protozoa, basic types of bacteria, yeasts

and algae

Robert Hooke (1635-1703 AD)

Developed compound microscope

1st to coin the term ‘cell’

TRANSITION ERA

Francesco Redi(1626-1697 AD)

Showed that maggots wouldn’t arise from decaying meat, when covered

John Needham(1713-1781 AD)

Supporter of spontaneous theory

Covered the flask with corks, still microbes appeared on mutton broth

Lazzaro Spallanzani(1729-1799 AD)

Demonstrated that air carries germs to the culture medium

Showed that boiled broth wouldn’t give rise to microbes

Franz Schulze and Theoder Schwann worked for the theory of Biogenesis.

H. Schroder and T. Von Dusch performed more convincing experiment for the establishment of Theory of Biogenesis.

Though many of the scientists had worked for Spontaneous generation and Biogenesis no convincing fact had been established

.

GOLDEN ERA

Louis Pasteur

Father of medical Microbiology

In his famous experiment, he took a Swan Neck Flask and

boiled nutrient rich broth inside it. He pointed that no growth took

place in the flask as dust and germs had been trapped on the

walls of the curved neck.

In 1897,he suggested that mild heating at 62.8°C (145°F)

for 30 minutes rather than boiling was enough to destroy

the undesirable organisms without ruining the taste of

product, the process is called Pasteurization.

Coined the term ‘microbiology’.

Disproved the theory of spontaneous generation.

Demonstrated that anthrax was caused by bacteria and

also proved the vaccine for disease.

Developed live attenuated vaccine for the disease

ROBERT KOCH (1843-1912)

Developed four postulates

that aided in the definitive

establishment of the germ

theory of disease. They are:

• A specific organism can always be found in association with a

given disease.

• The organism can be isolated and grown in pure culture in

laboratory.

• The pure culture will produce disease when inoculated into a

susceptible animal.

• It is possible to recover the organism in pure culture from the

experimentally infected animal.

Edward Jenner(1729-1823)

Discovered the technique of vaccination

Fanne Eilshemius Hesse(1850-1934)

First proposed the use of agar in culture media.

It was not attacked by most of the bacteria.

Richard Petri(1852-1921)

Developed the Petridish, used for solid culture media

Alexander Flemming(1881-1955 AD)

Discovered Penicillin from

Pencilium notautm that destroys

several pathogenic bacteria.

Paul Ehrlich(1854-1915 AD)

Discovered treatment of Syphilis by using arsenic

Studied toxins and anti toxins in quantitative terms and laid

foundations of biological standardizations.

MODERN ERA

Nobel Laureates

Year Laureates Contribution

1901 Von Behring Dipth antitox

1902 Ronald Ross Malaria

1905 Robert Koch TB

1908 Metchinkoff Phagocytosis

1945 Flemming Penicilin

1962 Watson Crick Structure DNA

1968 Holley, Khorana Genetic Code

1997 Pruisner Prions

2002 Brenner, Hervitz Genetic regulation of organ

development and cell health

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