Opie Mae Angelie P.

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History and Development of Microbiology

6th century The existence of unseen microbiological life was postulated by Jainism, which is
based on Mahavira’s teachings.
Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro as the first known to suggest the
possibility of disease spreading by yet unseen organisms.
1020 Abū Alī ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) hypothesized that tuberculosis and other diseases
might be contagious.
1546 Girolamo Fracastoro proposed that epidemic diseases were caused by transferable
seed-like entities that could transmit infection by direct or indirect contact, or
even without contact over long distances.
mid-1500s Girolamo Fracastoro, an Italian scholar, advanced the notion as early as the mid-
1500s that contagion is an infection that passes from one thing to another
Microorganisms were neither proven, observed, nor correctly and accurately described until the
17th century.The reason for this was that all these early studies lacked the
microscope.
1666 Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first scientists to use a microscope and identify
microbes. He was also the father of Microbiology.
1779 Lazzaro Spallanzani found that boiling broth would sterilize it and kill any
microorganisms in it. He also found that new microorganisms could settle only in
a broth if the broth was exposed to the air. He also discovered the workings of
animal reproduction, which requires semen (carrying spermatazoa) and an ovum
1864 Pasteurization is the name of the process discovered in part by the French
microbiologist Louis Pasteur, one of the founders of microbiology. This process
involves heating milk to a particular temperature for a set amount of time in order
to remove microorganisms.
1828-1898 Ferdinand Julius Cohn was a German biologist. His classification of bacteria into
four groups based on shape (sphericals, short rods, threads, and spirals) is still in
use today.
1876 Robert Koch (1843–1910) established that microbes can cause disease. He found
that the blood of cattle who were infected with anthrax always had large numbers
of Bacillus anthracis.
19th century The word microbe was coined in the last quarter of the 19th century to describe
these organisms
1940s Microbiology has experienced an extremely productive period during which
many disease-causing microbes have been identified and methods to control them
developed. Microorganisms have also been effectively utilized in industry; their
activities have been channeled to the extent that valuable products are now both
vital and commonplace.
Sources: https://www.britannica.com/science/microbiology