The History of microbiology As an established and specialized science, begins at the end of the 19th century, although the reference to microorganisms as"invisible germs"is located in Ancient Greece.
The microbiology Is the science that studies the life of microorganisms, that is, living beings that are so small that they are not visible to the human eye, but through a microscope.
The name microbiology derives from the Greek words Mikros Which means"small", Bios ,"Life"and the termination -lodge ,"Treatise, study, science", respectively.
Its object of study are microorganisms, also called microbes. In turn, these can be formed by a single cell Or by more complex cellular structures.
Among the unicellular microorganisms we can find eukaryotes, or cells with cell nucleus division, and prokaryotes, or cells without nucleus division. To the first category belong the fungi and to the second, the bacteria, for example.
Development of the History of Microbiology
The methodological advances and the separation of the sciences of all type of mysticism and religion, were a fundamental factor in the history of the microbiology.
Within the history of microbiology four periods can be distinguished: the first merely speculative, extending from antiquity to the invention of the first microscopes, the second period comprised by the first microscopists between 1675 and the mid-nineteenth century, the third Period where microorganisms are grown between the middle and late nineteenth century, and the fourth stage, which runs from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present.
First Period: From Antiquity to the discovery of the microscope
The period prior to the discovery of the microscope was characterized by speculation about the existence of microorganisms and their functions.
In antiquity, the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius (96-55 BC) referred in his texts to the"seeds of disease."
Hundreds of years later, in the Renaissance European, Girolamo Frascatorius in his book" De contagione et contagionis "(1546), attributed contagious diseases to"living germs", leaving aside all kinds of supernatural explanation about diseases.
The latter was an advance in the separation of religion and mysticism from the causes of the diseases and ills of populations.
P On the other hand, throughout this period, microorganisms were already known for fermentation and brewing, breads and dairy products, but there were no scientific explanations.
Second Period: 1675 until the mid-nineteenth century
Already in the seventeenth century with the evolution of the different types of lenses, Constantijn Huygens made the first reference to the microscope (1621).
Huygens explained how the Englishman Drebbel had a magnifying instrument, called Microscopium In 1625, at the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome.
The discovery of the microorganism was the work of the Dutch merchant and scientist Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), a passionate for perfectly polished spherical lenses.
With them the scholar created the first simple microscopes. In 1675, with one of these lenses, Leeuwenhoek discovered that in the water droplets of a pond one could see numerous creatures, which he called"animalcules".
Among its many discoveries we can count the observation of bacteria, Red blood cells Y Spermatozoa . His findings earned him part of the Royal Society of London, to which he sent his studies by correspondence. Leeuwenhoek is considered, until today, as the"Father of Microbiology".
At the same time, the English Robert Hooke (1635-1703) studied the fungi and discovered the cellular structure of plants with compound microscopes.
These honeycomb-like cells of the plants, Hooke baptized them"cells"of the Latin Cellulae , Which means"cell".
Third Period: Second half of Century XIX
In the seventeenth century also attacked from the science to the theory of spontaneous generation. The latter assumed that living things could originate from inanimate matter, air, or decaying debris.
Spontaneous generation had its last strong reappearance in the first third of the nineteenth century, with the discovery of the importance of oxygen for life and other extra-scientific issues, such as the emergence of the concept of transmutation.
In this sense, Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) definitively refuted the theory of spontaneous generation leaving infusions in glass jars with sinuous necks without closing, leaving the liquid exposed to the air.
With this experiment, Pasteur demonstrated that the microorganisms were retained in the glass neck and the liquid did not generate microbes with exposure to air.
The germs of the air were the ones that contaminated the liquid and there was no way they would be generated spontaneously from the liquid.
In 1861, Pasteur published a report explaining how to retain microbes from the air using a tube with a cotton plug as a filter. This technique allowed to take microorganisms from the air and study them.
It was also Pasteur who demonstrated the presence of microorganisms in the fermentation of dairy products. In other works on ferments, the scientist discovered that some microorganisms were resistant to lack of oxygen. In addition the scientist was the creator of the first vaccine composed of attenuated microorganisms.
In 1877, John Tyndall (1820-1893) showed how to sterilize by discontinuous heat. This form showed that microorganisms very resistant to the heat existed.
Finally, the German Robert Koch (1843-1910) developed the culture of microorganisms, forming colonies on certain surfaces, facilitating their study.
In this sense, Koch introduced the concept of species to microorganisms, with distinctive features and functions. Also in 1882, Koch was the discoverer of the bacillus of tuberculosis and, in 1883, the cholera bacillus.
By these findings he is known as the founder of bacteriology, ie a branch of microbiology that studies bacteria.
Fourth Period: Beginnings of the twentieth century to the present
Given the advances of the nineteenth century, both theoretical and methodological, microbiology ceased to be merely speculative, in order to consolidate itself as a science and to divide its object of study into specific areas.
In this sense, research on infections progressed, both in the techniques of sterilization and post-operative care, as well as in their possible cures.
Infectology was established as an area of microbiology where Paul Ehrlich (1854-1919), who found a treatment for syphilis and started the so-called chemotherapy, and Fleming, who in 1929 discovered penicillin, the first of the antibiotics.
Also the advances of the twentieth century made possible the studies of the composition of blood and its diagnoses, obtaining vaccines for various diseases, virology or study of viruses, creation of retroviruses for diseases such as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) , among others.
In this sense, the interdisciplinary practice of microbiology was extended to medicine, biochemistry, biology and genetics, among others.
References
- Spanish Society of Microbiology (July 2017). Semicrobiologia.org
- History Microbiology (July 2017) farmacia.ugr.es.
- Iáñez Pareja, Enrique (1998). Course of General Microbiology. Recovered in July 2017 in: biology.edu.ar.
- American Society for Microbiology (July 2017). Asm.org.