Brief History of Microbiology

The history of microbiology can be trace back to year 1675 when a man called Anthony Von Leeuwenhoek of blessed memory, he was born in 1632 and die in 1723, lived in Delhi Holland. He is a man that sells women cloths, curtain etc. Because he use canoe to cross river to other areas to sell his product, when he is on the way going to market sometime rain will fall and meet him on the way going to market, so when rain meet him on the way some of his product will be stains. This condition continues anytime rain meets him when going to the market. He is not only a cloth seller but also specialized in lens making, he decide to construct his own microscope. He used the microscope construct by himself to carry out the experiment.Anthony Von Leeuwenhoek use rain stagnant water for the experiment, in the process of the experiment he observed little animalcules which he called it then, that is protozoa. But work carried out after him now gives a primary account of microorganism.He could be called father of microorganism because on his experiment carried out, he was so careful and cannot offered of making mistake so because of the scrupulous experiment, he is able to yield accurate result.That pave way to today present day scientist because of the simplify explanation of his experiment. Man called Barr in year 1836 establishes that, microorganism could be the agent that causes disease but no comprehension of this assumption. He carried out experiment, on his experiment he used heat sterilization pin and transmit disease from infected silkworm to infect with fungi disease to a healthy silkworm. Even with this clear evidence, the real science of bacteriology remains obscure till middle nineteenth century. The award of sterilization could be trace back to man called Louis Pasteur born on 1823 and die on 1895 he is a French Chemist. With his effort in sterilization of liquid that leads to today autoclave. His area of specialization was on fermentation, the substantiate that catabolism of sugar to alcohol was as result of microorganism acted on the sugar by fermentation process.

See also  What is Schistosome?

He did not stop their but further to acquire knowledge on isolation and culture of bacteria on the nutrient medium, he study how those bacteria affect animals as a living organism. But it was on 1878 he held a paper discussing on how specific microorganism can give rise to specific disease in the living organism worlds.When Pasteur study is in progress, another man called Robert Koch born in 1843 die in 1900, was making a very large contribution to bacteriology this man was the one that develop the method of staining and fixing bacteria using aniline dye, on the process of his research, he discovered tubercle bacillus, he isolated this microorganism, anthrax bacillus in a pure culture.This man also discovered vibro cholerae, microorganism that cause cholera.

See also  Schistosomiasis Clinical Diseases

After these experiments, in year 1881 he publish a document containing method on how to produce pure culture of bacteria through the cultivation of the bacteria in a solid culture media. He used meet infusion broth, that he produce by himself and solidified it using gelatin, and then pour it into a glass plate.

See also  Antimicrobial therapy

He is also called father of culturing because his work brought enlightenment to present day culture. But agar is now been used for gelatin substitution. Is after these worked, a man called Petris introduce a plate called petri dish.Since then mode of development has become a fire bridge approach, such in terms of antiseptic and aseptic which was introduce by Lister. Much knowledge was contributed in term of increase development of bacteriology.

Today with this knowledge of bacteria, virus, fungus, yeast, etc. has led to appropriate terms of microbiology (which are derived from Latin words micro which mean small, organism which mean life are term which generally used to refer to the study of microorganism). Above all microbiology can be defined as a branch of biology that deals with the study of microorganism.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Shopping Cart
× How can I help you?