Chapter 1: Brief History of Microbiology Flashcards
Who observed a thin slice of cork through a microscope and
honeycomb cavities, or “cells” or
“little boxes” resembling monastery
cells – cell walls of dead cells?
Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
• Dutch merchant and scientist
• more than 400 microscopes
developed and only 9 remaining
• the first person to see tiny living
organisms in a drop of water
• “animalcules” – bacteria, protozoa,
sperm, and other small animals
Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
Spontaneous Generation
life can arise from nonliving matter
Aristotle
one of the earliest scholars to articulate this theory – evidenced the
appearance of animals from environments previously devoid of such animals, such as
the seemingly sudden appearanceof fish in a new puddleof water.
- Italian physician
- performed an experiment in 1668 to
refute spontaneous generation
∴ Maggots could only form when flies
were allowed to lay eggs in the meat,
and that the maggots were the
offspring of flies, not the product of
spontaneous generation.
Francesco Redi (1626–1697)
Who demonstrated that maggots were the offspring of flies, not
products of spontaneous generation?
Francesco Redi (1626–1697)
Who argued that microbes
arose spontaneously in broth from a “life force?
John Needham (1713-1781)
-Tried to prove spontaneous
generation.
-Flaw with his experiment: the flask
was not sealed and was exposed to
air (NEEDham NEEDed to fix his
experiment)
John Needham (1713-1781)
Whose
experiments with broth aimed to disprove those of Needham?
Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799)
- boiled flask of gravy to kill life, sealed one jar, left other jar open
- open jar had living microorganisms,
sealed jar did not
∴ Gravy did not produce life, organisms entered through the air
Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799)
- it postulates the production of new living organisms from pre-existing life
- is based on the theory that life can only come from life, and it refers to any process by which a life form can give rise toother life forms.
Biogenesis theory
- Polish-born, German scientist
- Omnis cellula e cellula(“All cells
come from cells”) – the second tenet
of modern cell theory - popularized the cell theory in an
1855 essay entitled “Cellular
Pathology”
Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902)
- French chemist
- 1858 – Pasteur filtered air through a
gun-cotton filter and, upon
microscopic examination of the cotton,
found it full of microorganisms,
suggesting that the exposure of a broth
to air was not introducing a “life force”
to the broth but rather airborne
microorganisms - disproved the theory of spontaneous
generation
Louis Pasteur (1822–1895)
- 1857 – 1914
- rapid advances led tothe the establishment of microbiology
First Golden Age of Microbiology
- agents of many diseases and the role of immunity in preventing and curing disease
- chemical activities of microorganisms
- improved the techniques for performing microscopyand culturing microorganisms
- developed vaccines and surgical techniques
Discoveries and studies of First Golden Age of Microbiology
process of food preservation that uses mild heat to destroy pathogens and extend shelf life of certain foods and beverages123.
Pasteurization
refers to the metabolic process by which organic molecules (normally glucose) are converted into acids, gases, or alcohol in the absence of oxygen or any electron transport chain.
Fermentation
Certain diseases are caused by the invasion of the body by microorganisms
Germ Theory
- Microbes can cause illnesses within the body.
- Microbes (and thus the illnesses) can spread from one person to another.
- A specific microbe exists for each illnesses which will always invoke the same
illnesses.
Based on three basic underlying principles that developed throughout the
history of medicine (The Discovery of the Germ by John Waller).
