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History of Microbiology

Microbiology has progressed through four eras: the Discovery Era, Transition Era, Golden Era, and Modern Era. In the Discovery Era, van Leeuwenhoek first observed bacteria under the microscope. The Transition Era saw experiments disproving spontaneous generation and establishing germ theory. During the Golden Era, Pasteur and Koch proved germ theory and developed vaccines and techniques for isolating bacteria. The Modern Era applies these foundations to ongoing research.

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409 views10 pages

History of Microbiology

Microbiology has progressed through four eras: the Discovery Era, Transition Era, Golden Era, and Modern Era. In the Discovery Era, van Leeuwenhoek first observed bacteria under the microscope. The Transition Era saw experiments disproving spontaneous generation and establishing germ theory. During the Golden Era, Pasteur and Koch proved germ theory and developed vaccines and techniques for isolating bacteria. The Modern Era applies these foundations to ongoing research.

Uploaded by

Aishwarya Kashyap
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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History of Microbiology

Microbiolog
y

Discovery Transition
Era Era Golden Era Modern Era
Discovery Era
• Greek’s believed that living things could originate from nonliving matter

Aristotle
• Discarded this notion, but he still held that animals could arise
spontaneously from dissimilar organisms or from soil.
• Spontaneous generation
Antonie van leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
• Father of microbiology
• Invented the first practical microscope
• He discovered blood cells
• The first bacteria observed by man
• Described basic Bacteria, Protozoa
• Father or Bacteriology
Transition Era
Germ Theory of Disease
• During the 1600s, the concept of spontaneous generation of diseases
was proved wrong by the experiments performed by Francesco Redi.
• In his experiments, he placed a loaf of meat and an egg in three distinct jars:
• Thus Redi refuted the concept of spontaneous generation
• Founder of ‘experimental biology’
• Challenged spontaneous generation
theory
Lazzaro spallanzai (1729- 1799)
• Air carried germs to the culture medium
• Boiled broth did not give rise to microscopic form of life
Golden Era
Louis Pasteur Discovers Germ Theory, 1861
• Modern germ theory
• He proved that food spoiled because of contamination by invisible bacteria, not
because of spontaneous generation
• Father of medical Microbiology
• Invented the process of Pasteurization, fermentation
Development of various vaccines
Lord Joseph lister (1827-1912)
• Father of Antiseptic Surgery
• Concluded that wound infections were due to microorganism
• Devised a method to destroy the microorganism in operation theatre by spraying
carbolic acid.
Robert Koch
• 1876, 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.
• Koch found that he could transmit anthrax from one animal to another by taking a
small sample of blood from the infected animal and injecting it into a healthy one,
and this caused the healthy animal to become sick.
• Perfected technique to isolate pure bacteria
• Gelatine to prepare media
Fanne Eilshemius Hesse (1850-1934)

• Kochs assistant proposed use of agar in culture media


• It was not attacked by most bacteria
• High melting point then gelatine

Richard Petri (1887)


• Developed Petri dish to culture

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