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Robert Hooke
The late 17th century was a period of great scientific discovery.Robert Hooke believed that good science resulted from making observationson what you could see. In his twenties Hooke wrote a book called Micrographia which meant tiny drawings. His book was published in 1665. Robert developed his own model of the compound microscope. his most famous drawing is of a cork. -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
Anton was a cloth salesman in Holland and aslo a amateur scientist. Anton knew how to make simple microscopes. Leeuwenkoeks skill at building microscopes eventually let him magnify objects over 200 times. He was one of the first people to observe and record microbes. He never stopped researching until he died. -
Matthias Jakob Schleiden
Matthias was a german biologist. He was trained to be a lawyer but left to become a professor of botany. Schlieden used a microscope to study plants. According to his studies he suggested that in 1838 all plants are made of cells. This was to most people a whole new idea. -
Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold
In 1845 Karl suggested that microbes werenmade up of cells also. But more specifically one cell. Siebold believed that organisms made up of many cells were built out of single celled microbes. He was wrong about his idea. Although he was correct about how microbes were living creatures made up of the same material as animals and plants. -
Theodor Schwann
Theodor Schwann spent most of is time studying animals. He was very interested in the digestive system. In 1839 a year after Schlieden proposed his theory he suggested that animals and not just plants are made up of cells. Schwann and Schlieden created the cell theory- that all living organisms are made up of cells -
Ignaz Philipp Semmelweiss
Ignaz was a hungarian doctor who was working in austria trying to prevent a woman from dying. 1840s a pregnant woman died of a disease called childbed fever. Semmelweiss noticed that many pregnant woman were examined by doctors who had just completed an autopsy. He believed that doctors were carrying the disease patient to patient. He began to wash his hands between patients and as a result he reduced the deaths from12% to 1%. -
Florence Nightingale
Florence was a english nurse she published her ideas on disease in 1860. She was one of the firdt to recognize the value of cleanlinessand reccomended it as a part of good nursing. Her efforts improved sanitary practices in military hospitals and led to fewer soldiers dying from infections. -
Rudolf Carl Virchow
Rudolf was a polish doctor who was influenced by Schliedens and Schwanns work. He is famous for saying "all cells arise from cells" in the 1850s which meant that cells reproduce to create new cells. When you see a new plant or baby animal you will see a multicellular creature. All living organsims begin as a single cell. -
Louis Pasteur
Louis was a french chemist who began studying microbes in 1864. He worked on the fermentation of wine and vinegar. Louis noticed that there were certain microbes that caused food and drink to spoil. He then found out that heat can kill many of these microbes. Using heat to kill microbes is now known as pasteurization. He suggested that microbes could cause infectious diseases and were easily spread by people. -
Joseph Lister
Joseph Lister was a scottish surgeon he was concerned at the high death rates of patients following surgery. When lister heard of Pasteurs germ theory of disease he came up with the idea of killing germs with chemicals. In 1867 he began to use an antiseptic to clean surgical instruments. -
Robert Koch
In 1876 Robert Koch a german doctor identified the microbe that caused anthrax an infectious disease that was killing cattle. Later he also identified the microbes that caused tuberculosis and cholera. Koch developed a way to prove that a specific microbe caused a particular disease. Koch also created new ways to grow cultures of uncontaminated microbes. -
William Stewart Halsted
William was an american surgeon. In 1890 Halsted became one of the first surgeons to use a rubber glove during surgery. The gloves could be sterilized with heat and chemicals that were too hard on human hands. This helped reduce presence of microbes and improve health
