Critique on investigation of microevolution; historical background by: Muhammad Umair DVM 9th Semester University of Agriculture Faisalabad

1. Antibiotics!
Awaking Novel Bacteria
Part III: Critique on Investigation of Micro-Evolution;
Historical Background
By: Muhammad Umair DVM 9th FVS: UAF
drmumair13@gmail.com
From the very simplest division to the giant systems of the macrocosm, matter
fabricates a well strategic and systematized hierarchy, with each higher level more
complex and advance made from the planned organization of the level that
immediately precedes it. Such a miracle of perfection is not engendered randomly and
How is it made, is still a mystery to reveal?
The utmost supremacy of thinking, reasoning,drawing inferences and conclusions is what; that
makeshumanthe supreme creationof the system.Thisinnatequalityurgeshimtocontemplate uponhis
existence and onto the systemic organization of the cosmic structure around him.
In thisquestmanstartedlookingintohismatteranddiggingthe rootsof hisexistenceinorderto
answerhismind,“the questionsonhispresence andrelationtothe otherbodiesof cosmos”.Thisquest,
the confrontation of his mind and surrounding matter, produced many great thinkers that tried to
conquestthe war betweenmindandcosmosbytheirtheories.That’show the philosophiesonevolution
came and developed in different minds and in different eras.
The conceptof evolutionisgenerallymisinterpreted,linkedtoDarwin [1]
andprobablyisthe most
questioned chapter of science. Evolution theories can be traced back to the Athenian-era of Greek
civilization,recordsthathistoriansandarcheologistswereable todiscoverandpenfromthe oldchapters
of humanintellect.Onbasisof the time,these theoriescanbe dividedintothree erasi.e.Greek,Muslim,
and European.
Greek Era:
“Nothing happens in vain, but everything from reason and by necessity” [2]
.
Said by, Leucippus (about 5th
Century B.C.), the originator of atomic philosophy, (translation by
C.C.W Taylor). [2]
GreekPhilosopherDemocritus(bornin77th
or 80th
Olympiad)[2]
contemporaryof Socrates,inone
of his fragments, translated by C.C.W Taylor in “The Atomists Leucippus and Democritus (1999)”, says:
“By convention sweet and by convention bitter, by convention hot, by convention cold, by
convention colour; but in reality atoms and void” [2]
.

2. InthisDemocritusdescribeshow thingsmayappearorfelttosenses,butinreality,theyare made
of atoms and void. He also had a view that atoms are in continuous motion in void. [2,3]
A Greek philosophical materialist Epicurus (341-270 BC) (his school of thought followers
“Epicureans”) took forward the Democritusphilosophy,he believed that small particles or atoms which
constitute the worldare continuallyinmotionandtheirrandombumpingintoone-anotherproducesthe
physical and chemical processes [4]
.
Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus,philosophy was that atoms are infinite in number and the
void is infinite in size. [2]
Plato a Greek philosophical idealist had a view (theory of Abstract Objects) that "ideal forms or
categories" are present in the Mind of Creator and here in the world we can see the "real or material
forms". Like the category or ideal form of cat-ness with all essential characters present in the Mind of
Creator and here in the world we can observe the real or material forms of different cats based on the
category cat-ness. [4]
Plato’s student Aristotle (384-322 BC) espoused many of his teacher’s views, but as a naturalist
paid much attention to empirical observations, as his studies on chick development show. His ideas on
“Goal-OrientationandPurposefulness”describesthatchange innature isalwaysdirectedtowardsafixed
or final goal and that goal also has some purpose [4]
. In his work ‘History of Animals’ he described
anatomical andbehavioral similaritiesbetweendifferentspecies,andinthe same Book,PartVIII,chapter
28 Aristotle describedfactorsthatinfluence diversityinlife, theirpassage tothe nextgeneration andthe
concepts of hybridization [5]
.
Medieval (Muslim) Era:
Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr known as Al-Jahiz (776-869 AD) described the ideas on evolutionary
mechanismandtransformation of speciesinhisfamousbook ‘Kitab al-Hayawan’ (The Bookof Animals).

3. [1]
George Alfred Leon Sarton, known as the father of discipline ‘history of science’ [6]
, in his book
‘Introduction to TheHistory of Science’ vol:I(1927) he wrote onAl-Jahizthat;“Hisworkcontainsthegerms
of many later theories (evolution, adaptation, animal psychology)” [7]
.
IbnMiskawaih(932-1030 AD),IbnSina(980-1037 AD) andIbnKhaldun(1332-1406 AD) presented
separatelytheirtheoriesonevolutionbythe transformation frommineralstoplantsandthentoanimals.
[1]
Accordingto IbnSina,mixingof fourelementsi.e.fire,air,water,andearthtoa certaindegree of
perfection and purity gave rise to the kingdoms of minerals, plants and animals. Each higher kingdom,
established with an advanced degree of purity and nearer approach to equilibrium alsopossesses some
newpowers.Inhisviewcombinationof lowerstate intoa certaindegree of perfection giverise toa new
facultyof soul withcertainnew attributes,inthisaspect he describes mineral soul (ruh ’ardiyah) having
attribute of preserving form, vegetative soul (al-nabatiyah nafs) having three powers i.e. feeding
(ghadiyah), growth (namiyah), and reproduction (muwallidah), and the animal soul (al-nafs al-
hayawaniyyah) withpowersof motion(muharrikah) andcomprehension(mudarrikah) [1]
.Hisconceptof

4. the soul seemsto be influencedbythe Aristoteliandoctrine,inDe Anima (On the Soul;by Aristotle),on
the souls of living things [8]
.
Al Biruni (973-1048 AD) in his book ‘Kitab al-Jawahir fi Ma’rifat al Jawahir’ (The Book Most
Comprehensive inKnowledge on PreciousStones) describedfourkingdomsi.e.mineral,plants,animals,
and man, but didn't mention their transformation, with human as the foremost creation of God [1]
.
Ibn Tufyl (1100-1186 AD) in his philosophical creation ‘Hay Bin Yaqzan’ (Alive Son of Awake),
actually a tale of two islands, presented the biological concepts of spontaneous generation,struggle for
existence and growth of defense organs [1]
.
Regardlessof the religion,the sect,the divisionof science or philosophyyoubelongto,one can
surely feel the essence of a uniform, strategic and systematized plan right from the simplest division of
matter passing through the advanced stages of atomic interactions formulating nano-machines ‘the
molecules’possessingformidableandprecisefunctionalitieswhichfurtherjoinuptoarticulate organelles
leadingtothe veryfirstunitcarryinglife ‘the cell’andfar-reachingworldof microorganisms.Cellsfurther
add-up in a well-programmed fashion to structure organs, cells and finally an ‘Individual’.

5. European era:
Until the invention of the microscope at the beginning of seventeenth century,human vision is
the onlymeanfornaturalistsandphilosopherstoobservelife,atwhichtheirtheoriesonorigin,evolution,
creation, and existence bankon.Afterthisbiological revolution,The Royal SocietyfellowsRobertHooke
and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, presented in their letters the observations of first ever microorganisms
seenbyhumaneye [9]
.Hookein‘Micrographia’(1665),observation XIX.Of a Plantgrowing in theblighted
or yellow specks of Damaskrose-leaves, Bramble-leaves, and some other kind of leave, presented his
observations of micro-fungus [10]
, Leeuwenhoek in his famous ‘Letter on Protozoa (1677)’ gave the first
description of protists and bacteria which he termed ‘animalcules’ [11]
. But due to the issues regarding
resolution, techniques for tissue preparation and culturing of microorganisms, proper dialogue on this
subject started in the twentieth century, but the work on natural history continued.
John Ray (1627-1705) a naturalist who, in colligation with nobleman Francis Willughby (1635-
1672) attempted to describe all the species of plants known at that time in ‘Historia Plantarum’ (1686-
1704). For this he required to define species, in his informal definition of species, Ray described the
criterion for determining species, as the distinguishing features that perpetuate themselves from
propagation of seed and that one species can never come from the seed of another and vice versa [8]
.
Although he was the believer and originator of idea, Fixity of Species, but he did allow a limited
transmutation between related species [8]
, as he wrote in ‘Methodus Plantarum’ (1682),
“Nature, as the saying goes, makes no jumps and passes from extreme to extreme only
through a mean. She always produces species intermediate between higher and lower types,
species of doubtful classification linking one type with another and having something common
with both—as for example the so-called zoophytes between plants and animals”[8]
.

6. Karl vonLinne’(CarolusLinnaeus) (1707-1778),aSwedishbotanist,developedausefulframework
toclassify organisms includingplantsandanimals[4]
.Accordingto him,Godcreatedeachspeciesand they
can be classified on the basis of their natural characteristics [4]
. His classification was published in 10
editionsof histreatise,‘Systema Naturae’(1735-1758) [4]
.AlthoughLinnaeuswasthe proponentof ‘fixity
of species’,buthisideasdidn’t remainfixedthroughouthis careeri.e.fromhis firstbookin 1735 till the
last one in 1771 [12,4]
. In Systema Naturae he writes,
“Species are most constant, since their generation is a true continuation”[12]
.
Although Linnaeus discoveredthatmutationsdidoccurand stateda numberof keymutations in
his work [14]
, but for about hundred and fifty years after Linnaeus, the definitionof species and their
constancy were consideredtobe strictlycorrelated[13]
.Aswrittenby Grene andMendelshonin ‘Topicsin
the Philosophy of Biology’ (1975),
“Oneof theminor tragediesin thehistory of biology hasbeen the assumption during thehundred
and fiftyyears afterLinnaeusthatconstancy and clear definition of species are strictly correlated
and thatonemustmakea choice of either believing in evolution (the'inconstancy'of species) …….
or …… in the sharp delimitation of species ….” [13]
Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) in hisvoluminous ‘HistorieNaturalle’ (NaturallyHistory) published
over fifty years (1749-1804) [14]
argued that species change over time and he mentioned intermediate
formsbetweentwospecies [4]
.He proposeda ‘theory of degeneration’todescribe the transformationof
species with in a group [4]
.
FrenchnaturalistJean-BaptisteLamarck (1744-1829) inhisbrilliantwork ‘PhilosophieZoologique’
(Zoological Philosophy) (1809), strongly condemned the idea of fixity of species [15]
and described that
species change withtime by the gradual change of conditions in whichthey are living in. As he wrote in
Chapter III ‘of species among living bodies and the Idea that we should attach to that word’,
“but in course of time the continued change of habitat in the individuals of which I speak, living
and reproducing in these new conditions,inducesalterationsin them which become moreor less
essential to their being; thus, after a long succession of generations these individuals, originally
belonging to onespecies,becomeatlength transformed into a new speciesdistinctfromthe first”
[15]
.
Accordingto Lamarck speciesonlyhave relative constancywiththe environmental factorsi.e. as
long as the environmental conditions are same species will remain constant [15]
.
Theoryon “RelativeConstancy of Microorganism/Bacteria” willbe discussedinupcomingarticles.
CharlesRobertDarwin(1809-1882) inhiskey work ‘On the Origin of Speciesby Meansof Natural
Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life’ (1959), presented five main
theoriesi.e.Evolution,CommonDescent,Gradualism, Multiplicationof Species,andNatural Selection [4]
.
Althoughthe historyof medicine canbe tracedback to the thirddynastyof Ur by the excavation
and translation from the cuneiform of Sumerian clay tablet, from around 2200 BC [16]
. published by
ProfessorSamuelNoahKramer,Universityof Pennsylvania,inhisbooks ‘FromtheTabletsofSumer’(1956)
and ‘The Sumerians their History Culture and Character’ (1963).

7. But the discovery of novel doorway, ‘the microscope’, leading man to the ginormous world of
unseenlife andfurtherscientificdebatesinmicro andcell biology hadtotallyrevolutionizedthe subjects
of biology and medicine.
After the discovery of microscope and development in latest techniques, the human came in
direct contact with pathogens, the invisible enemies he is fighting for thousands of years and then the
mysteries started revealing. Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries were the centuries of microbiology,
biologist’sforemost interests were the studies and debates on micro-life, the cell, bacteria, their origin,
fate, and molecular details. Until the discovery of Mold Juice in 1928 by Alexander Fleming which he
termed ’Penicillin’ [17]
, and later said:
“When I wokeup justafterdawn on September28,1928, I certainly didn’tplan to revolutionizeall
medicineby discovering theworld’s firstantibiotic,orbacteria killer.ButIsupposethatwasexactly
what I did”[17]
.
His work,“On the antibacterial actionof culturesof a Penicillium,withspecial reference to their
use inthe isolationof B. influenzae”,was publishedinBritish Journal of Experimental Pathologyin 1929
[18,19]
.
And now, human added up a robust weapon in his inventory and started increasing the list by
enhancingitscapabilitiesanddiscoveringmoresuchagents,that'show apremediatedmicro-war,the war
between antibiotics and bacteria, began.

8. Inter-Species and Molecular Evolution:
Macro-Evolutionor the Inter-SpeciesEvolutionisa change spreadoveran extendedtime frame
and can be examined by a deep evolutionary investigation mediated through different means of
paleontology and natural history.
Philosophical and Empirical studiesfromGreekerauptothe midof nineteenthcentury constitute
the work on macro-evolution.
Micro-Evolution or Inter-Species Evolution explicitly is the study of evolution in micro-life,
particularly bacteria.
Nano-Evolution or the Molecular Evolution is an Intra-Species Evolution in which change arises
within the same species at Nano or molecular level.
Empirical studies after the discoveries of microscopy and molecular techniques constitute the
work on Micro and Nano Evolution.
Inthe nextarticle,“Micro-War&itsConsequences”, molecularevolutionanditstriggeringfactors
regarding the bacterial immune system and will be discussed.
drmumair13@gmail.com
Bibliography:
1. Shah,M.S. Pre-DarwinianMuslimscholars’viewsonevolution.
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7. Sarton,G. (1948). Introduction to thehistory of science.Baltimore:The Williams&Wilkins
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9. 12. Ramsbottom,J.,O.B.E., M.A.,DR.SC. (1938). Presidential Address. Proceedingsof theLinnaean
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