Introductory Microbiology

History of Microbiology

• In the poem De rerum nature, Lucretious (967-55 B.C) mentioned the existence of “seeds” of disease. India can also take pride in contributing to the development of ancient microbiology in the form of septic tanks in Mohenjodaro and Harappa regions (3000 B.C.). But the existence of microbes was not established until Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1677) could see them in simple (one-lens) microscope. Leeuwenhoek, a cloth merchant in Delft, Holland spent much of his time in grinding tiny lenses of high magnification (300 x or so ),He took the scurf from the root of decayed tooth and mixed it with clean rain water, and saw the mobility in animalcules. He discovered major classes of bacteria (spheres, rods, and spirals), protozoa, algae, yeasts, erythrocytes, spermatozoa, and the capillary circulation. Leeuwenhoek’s discoveries were described in a flow of letters to the Royal Society of London.
• Aristotle (384-322 B.C) emphasized that animals might evolve spontaneously from the soil, plants or other unlike animal’s.Virgil (70-19 B.C.) also gave opinion for the artificial propagation of bees. Discoveries about spontaneous generation persisted till 17th century.