Here is a short description on History of Microbiology.

1. HISTORY OF
MICROBIOLOGY

2. SPONTANEOUS GENERATION
VERSUS BIOGENESIS
 Spontaneous generation states that life develops from
inanimate objects such as soil, plants, stones etc.
 States that air is the sole cause of life.
 Unable to be determined and actually confirmed through
experimentation
 Theory of Biogenesis states that life develops from pre-
existing life.
 Popular among scientists, and often proven through
experimentation.

3. DISCOVERY ERA
 Aristotle(384-322 BC) and others believed that living
organisms could be developed from non-living materials
Antony Van Leeuwenhoek(1632-1723 AD)
 Father of Bacteriology and Protozoology
 First to report his observations with accurate descriptions
and drawings
 Descriptions of protozoa, basic types of bacteria, yeasts
and algae

4. Robert Hooke (1635-1703 AD)
 Developed compound microscope
 1st to coin the term ‘cell’

5. TRANSITION ERA
Francesco Redi(1626-1697 AD)
 Showed that maggots wouldn’t arise from decaying meat,
when covered
John Needham(1713-1781 AD)
 Supporter of spontaneous theory
 Covered the flask with corks, still microbes appeared on
mutton broth
Lazzaro Spallanzani(1729-1799 AD)
 Demonstrated that air carries germs to the culture medium
 Showed that boiled broth wouldn’t give rise to microbes

6.  Franz Schulze and Theoder Schwann worked
for the theory of Biogenesis.
 H. Schroder and T. Von Dusch performed more
convincing experiment for the establishment of
Theory of Biogenesis.
 Though many of the scientists had worked for
Spontaneous generation and Biogenesis no
convincing fact had been established
.

7. GOLDEN ERA
Louis Pasteur
 Father of medical Microbiology
 In his famous experiment, he took a Swan Neck Flask and
boiled nutrient rich broth inside it. He pointed that no growth took
place in the flask as dust and germs had been trapped on the
walls of the curved neck.

8.  In 1897,he suggested that mild heating at 62.8°C (145°F)
for 30 minutes rather than boiling was enough to destroy
the undesirable organisms without ruining the taste of
product, the process is called Pasteurization.
 Coined the term ‘microbiology’.
 Disproved the theory of spontaneous generation.
 Demonstrated that anthrax was caused by bacteria and
also proved the vaccine for disease.
 Developed live attenuated vaccine for the disease

9. ROBERT KOCH (1843-1912)
Developed four postulates
that aided in the definitive
establishment of the germ
theory of disease. They are:
• A specific organism can always be found in association with a
given disease.
• The organism can be isolated and grown in pure culture in
laboratory.
• The pure culture will produce disease when inoculated into a
susceptible animal.
• It is possible to recover the organism in pure culture from the
experimentally infected animal.

14. Edward Jenner(1729-1823)
 Discovered the technique of vaccination
Fanne Eilshemius Hesse(1850-1934)
 First proposed the use of agar in culture media.
 It was not attacked by most of the bacteria.
Richard Petri(1852-1921)
 Developed the Petridish, used for solid culture media

15. Alexander Flemming(1881-1955 AD)
 Discovered Penicillin from
Pencilium notautm that destroys
several pathogenic bacteria.
Paul Ehrlich(1854-1915 AD)
 Discovered treatment of Syphilis by using arsenic
 Studied toxins and anti toxins in quantitative terms and laid
foundations of biological standardizations.

16. MODERN ERA
Nobel Laureates
Year Laureates Contribution
1901 Von Behring Dipth antitox
1902 Ronald Ross Malaria
1905 Robert Koch TB
1908 Metchinkoff Phagocytosis
1945 Flemming Penicilin
1962 Watson Crick Structure DNA
1968 Holley, Khorana Genetic Code
1997 Pruisner Prions
2002 Brenner, Hervitz Genetic regulation of organ
development and cell health

17. THANK YOU!