History of Microbiology

Robert hooke

• Saw the first cells and coined the term cell when he noticed that cork tree bark looked like monk’s chambers

• Published Micrographia, spurring a new interest in the microscopic world

Anton Van Leeuwenhoek (1674-1676)

• Known as the founder of microbiology as he discovered microorganisms and improved the microscope

• Made glass lenses and coined the term animalcules

• Methods kept private, but he shared his accurate drawings and aroused interest in microbiology and challenges the theory of Abiogenesis

  • Corresponded with a scientific institution

  • Abiogenesis: spontaneous generation

    • The thinking was that they don’t know how microorganisms came about, but we know that they do

    • Therefore, they came up with something like observing that bees were burrowed in the rotted flesh of dead animals, making them think that that’s how you make bees

    • Started with Socrates as he believed life could be born spontaneously from dead things

      • Aristotle continued this saying insects grew in mud or dung (thought that all living things came from things like this)

• Looked at protists, pond water, and sperm (was seen as weird and wished he hadn’t seen it)

Francesco Redi -1665

• First scientist who documented that he challenged Abiogenesis

• Used flies and flesh

  • Demonstrated spontaneous generation did not occur at the macroscopic level

  • But other scientists said no

John Needham - 1749

• Boiled and stoppered flasks but later found the flasks to be teeming with microorganisms

  • Told him spontaneous generation was true

Lazzaro Spallanzani -1766

• Repeated Needham’s experiments, but boiled the flasks longer than the vital force

  • Proved spontaneous generation did not occur

Theodor Schwan and Franz Schultz (1830s - Germany)

• Boiled broth and exposed the flasks to open air - no microorganisms were found

• Schwann agreed with others’ proposition that products of fermentation were created by microorganisms

• Schwann also said that all animals were made of cells

• Test to prove Abiogenesis is wrong

  • He lets air into broth and shows that there were no microorganisms (before we knew that microorganisms could travel in air)

  • Louis Pasteur came up with a better method

    • Used a glass with a curved arm, allowing water to condense in the arm of flask and seal it

    • Won the prize from Paris Academy of Sciences for ending Abiogenesis

    • Known as the founder of bacteriology

      • Fermentation was caused by desirable ones

      • Perfected the boiling method for preservation of dairy products

    • Pasteurization

    • Supporter of germy theory of disease

      • Experiments showed bacteria can cause disease and grow in tissues

Edward Jenner (1749-1823)

• Discovered a safe and efficient vaccination against smallpox

• Known as the founder of immunology

  • Led to the eradication of smallpox when he noticed that dairy workers exposed to cowpox never got smallpox

  • Proved that experimentally that resistance to smallpox can be induced by injecting material from diseases pustules into humans

John Snow (1853-1854, London)

• English physician considered the founder of epidemiology

  • The study of epidemics and how they affect a community

• Cholera outbreaks were a major issue

  • Bacterial disease manifested by diarrhea, which was so severe that life threatening amounts of water are lost from the body

• Identified the broad street pump as the contaminated source of water