GENERAL MICROBIOLOGY - T.P. Pyrog - 2004

1. EMERGENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY

1.1. MORPHOLOGICAL PERIOD IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY

Microorganisms were used to produce food and beverages for more than eight thousand years before their existence became known. For instance, scenes of bread and beer production are depicted on a relief from an Egyptian Fifth Dynasty tomb dating back to 2400 BC.

The microbial world was discovered in the 17th century (1676) by the Dutch naturalist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), who can rightfully be called a pioneer of Cell/15.html">Microscopy. Examining Water, dental plaque, and various putrid residues using simple lenses, he discovered tiny motile organisms that were a thousand times smaller than grains of sand.

A. van Leeuwenhoek discovered and described representatives of all groups of microorganisms—Protozoa, microscopic Algae, Yeasts, and all major morphological forms of Bacteria, including cocci, rods, curved forms, and others. The results of these studies were published in the proceedings of the Royal Society of London and in the monograph The Secrets of Nature Discovered by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1695).

Over the next 150 years, the Morphology of hundreds of new microorganisms was discovered and described, yet their role in biology remained unknown. Moreover, researchers somehow did not even set such a goal for themselves. None of them could imagine that such extremely small organisms could have any significance. Therefore, the first period in The Development of microbiology is called the descriptive or morphological period.

For centuries, scientists worldwide struggled to solve three major problems: THE ORIGIN OF life (spontaneous generation of organisms), The Nature of Fermentation and putrefaction processes, and the causes of infectious diseases. Systematic research in these areas contributed to the development of microbiology.