History of microbiology

History of Microbiology.

Microbiology began with the discovery of microscope that enabled to visualize too small microscopic organisms which are not visible to our naked eyes.Before the discovery of microscopes, some of thepostulations regarding existence of microorganisms had been raised,some of them are given below:

• Roger Bacon(1220-1292)postulated that disease is produced by invisible living creatures.
• Similar postulation was raised by Girolamo Fracastaro(1483-1553) and Anton Von Plenciz (1762 AD)
• Athanasius Kircher early 1858 first referred worms to visible organisms found on decaying bodies and secretion.
• Robert Hooke in 1665 first observed onion cell in enlarged form.

Discovery of Microscope.

Anton Van Leeuwenhoek(1632-1723) was the Dutch student of natural history.he used grand glass for making thelens,fortunately he discovered a magnifying thelenswhich we now call a microscope.During his lifetime, he constructed more than 250 microscopes with themaximum magnification of 200-300 times.Then he was the first person to see the microorganism present in the rainwater.He made adrawing of his observation and reported all those things to British Society.Most of his drawings were similar to protozoans which were identified later. the experiment established the fact that the origin of the maggots was the flies and not the meat.

Important Discoveries in Microbiology.

Reference.

C.H.Collins. (1995). Microbiological Methods. Oxford Univ Press.

D.Greemwood, R. S. (2002). Medical Microbiology. London: Churchill Livingstone.

M.J.Pelezar. (1993). Microbiology. Tata McGraw hill.

M.T.Madigan, J. a. (1997). Biology of microorganisms. London: Prentice hall International Inc.

R.N.Atlas. (1984). Fundamentals and Applications. NewYork: MacMiHiam Publishing Co.