HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND KEY PEOPLE IN MICROBIOLOGY

1. Fracastoro: communicable disease are transmitted by invisible germs bad

germs or seminaria morbis
2. Anton van Leeuwenhoek: Father of Microscopy, created lenses of up to 300
magnification; first to describe bacteria; examined his own tooth scrapings and
found animalcules.
3. Aristotle: first to observe spontaneous generation
4. Francisco Redi: strong opponent of spontaneous generation
-demonstrated that microbes do not arise from decaying meat
-maggots can develop only if you let flies fly into the meat
5. John Needham: strengthened the case of spontaneous generation when he
demonstrated the presence of microorganisms in a previously heated solution
-open jar was subjected to heat and transferred into a sealed jar, claimed
that the vital force was destroyed by heat and was kept away because the
jar was sealed in Spallanzanis experiment
-microorganisms arise spontaneously from meat
6. Lazaro Spallanzani: microbes are present in the air; microbes in the air entered
Needhams solution after it was boiled and transferred to another sealed flask;
oxygen was not enough to support microbial growth; showed that nutrient
solution heated after it was sealed will not produce microbial growth.
7. Louis Pasteur: Father of Microbiology and Bacteriology
-disproved spontaneous generation; microorganisms are indeed present in the air
and can contaminate seemingly sterile solutions but air itself could not generate
microbes; life cannot be destroyed by heat; materials can be attributed to the
microbes in the solution itself or in the air
-Germ Theory
-Pasteurization; Bacteria can cause souring and spoilage; fermentation
8. John Tyndall: strengthened Pasteurs experiment; used a specially designed box
with small opening to prove that air or dust carries germs; as long as the solution
is free of dust it will remain free of microbes
9. Ignaz Semmelweiz: Handwashing; demonstrated the transmission of puerperal
fever
10. Joseph Lister: Father of Antiseptic Surgery; used phenol in treating wounds
11. Robert Koch: Kochs Postulates
12. Rudolf Virchow: Biogenesis (life begets life)
13. Abbe: introduced the use of condenser and OIO
14. Edward Jenner: Smallpox Vaccination
15. Paul Ehrlich: Salvarsan (treatment for syphilis)
16. Alexander Flemming: Penicillin
17. Rene Dubois: discovered Tyrocidine and Gramicidin
18. Rebecca Lancefield: proposed a classification system for Streptococci
19. James Watson and Francis Crick: model for the structure and replication of DNA
20. Paul Ehrlich: Theory of Immunity
21. Metchnikoff: Theory of Phagocytosis
Golden Age of Microbiology: 1858-1910
Modern Development in Microbiology: 1928-present