History of microbiology development

Significance of microbiology for medicine

The realization that microorganisms are specifically what cause diseases radically changed approaches to medical care. An active search for methods to combat infections began on several fronts:

• Sanitary measures: interrupting transmission routes and destroying microbes in the external environment (disinfection).
• Clinical measures: studying disease development mechanisms and early diagnostics.
• Pharmacology: creation of antimicrobial therapy agents.

Fundamental research into the properties of pathogens, such as pathogenicity and drug susceptibility, made it possible to create antimicrobial agents (antibiotics, chemotherapeutic drugs) and immunobiological products (vaccines, sera). The result was a global decrease in morbidity and the complete eradication of certain infections.

Periodization and the dawn of science

The presence of infections in deep antiquity is proven by findings of bacterial antigens and specific lesions in ancient burials. Microbiology originated even before the discovery of microbes themselves, based on conjectures about external factors of diseases.

The history of the science is conventionally divided into five periods:

1. Heuristic.
2. Morphological.
3. Physiological.
4. Immunological.
5. Molecular-genetic.

Heuristic period: from miasmas to living contagions

Began in the Ancient world (3rd–4th centuries BC). Hippocrates hypothesized that diseases are transmitted from person to person through non-living substances from marshy areas — "miasmas".

Despite the lack of knowledge about microbes, people empirically used the products of their vital activity in baking, winemaking, and brewing.

In the 15th–16th centuries, Girolamo Fracastoro made a breakthrough by proposing the theory of "living contagions". He believed that the causative agents of diseases were invisible living entities transmitted through the air and objects. Fracastoro, who became the founder of epidemiology, proposed the first protective measures: isolation of the sick and fumigation of premises.

Morphological period and early visualizations

In the 17th–18th centuries, with the invention of the microscope, the morphological stage began. The Dutchman Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, by grinding lenses, created a microscope with up to 300x magnification. Studying dental plaque, water, and other fluids, he discovered microorganisms, naming them "animalcules" ("little animals"). He published his drawings in the Royal Society of London.

The microscope was first brought to Russia by Peter I after a visit to Leeuwenhoek. The first Russian researcher of microbes was M. M. Terekhovsky, who used his experiments to disprove the theory of spontaneous generation of life.

Proof of the etiological role of microbes

For a long time after the discovery of microbes, their role in the development of diseases remained unclear. To prove their pathogenicity, researchers conducted experiments on animals and even resorted to self-infection.

Russian physician Danila Samoilovich infected himself with material from a plague bubo (and survived). Similar heroic experiments were also conducted by M. von Pettenkofer, I. I. Mechnikov, and D. K. Zabolotny (with cholera). These studies finally confirmed the infectious nature of many diseases.

Briefly: answers to topical questions

Class and exam questions

What else to study on this topic

• Physiological period of microbiology development
• Immunological period and the contribution of Louis Pasteur
• Molecular-genetic period and modern methods
• Robert Koch's discoveries and the development of bacteriology

Other topics in the section "Introduction to microbiology and immunology"

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