Bacteriology in a Nutshell. 
CHAPTER I. 
BRIEF HISTORY OF BACTERIOLOGY. 
Bacteriology is that branch of science which 
teaches us the evils of disease producing micro¬ 
organisms, and the benefits derived by the ani¬ 
mal world from another class which are antag¬ 
onistic to disease. 
The history of bacteriology can be traced 
back to the seventeenth century. Some au¬ 
thorities, indeed, tell us that at as early 
a date as the time of Caesar there lived a Roman 
author, Varro by name, who wrote of very tiny 
living “creatures” which were invisible to the 
naked eye, and yet they by some means gained 
an entrance into the system and “caused diseases 
difficult to treat.” Almost two thousand years roll 
by before we learn of the germ theory of disease 
being again touched upon, then, in the eighteenth 
century, it is advocated by Plenciz, of Vienna. 
In the year 1675 we are told that Antonius 
Von Leeuwenhoek, of Holland,* proclaimed to 
the world the perfection of his single lens by 
means of which he had brought to light “living, 
moving animalcules” in rainwater. So very tiny 
*Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft. Netherlands, ir 
1632; died in 1723. 
Definition. 
Earliest 
Mention. 
Perfection 
of 
Single Lens. 
9 
