Editing Microorganism (section)

===Ancient precursors===
[[File:Akshamsaddin's Tomb at Goynuk.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The mausoleum of [[Akshamsaddin]], who mentioned microorganisms in his book Maddat ul-Hayat in the 15th century, in Bolu, Turkiye.]]
[[File:Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723). Natuurkundige te Delft Rijksmuseum SK-A-957.jpeg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Antonie van Leeuwenhoek]] was the first to study microscopic organisms.]]
[[File:Spallanzani.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Lazzaro Spallanzani]] showed that boiling a broth stopped it from decaying.]]

The possible existence of microscopic organisms was discussed for many centuries before their discovery in the 17th century. By the 6th century&nbsp;BC, the [[Jain]]s of present-day India postulated the existence of tiny organisms called ''[[nigoda]]s''.<ref name="JDL_2013">{{cite book |first=Jeffery D. |last=Long |title=Jainism: An Introduction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I3gAAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 |year=2013 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-0-85771-392-6 |page=100 }}</ref> These nigodas are said to be born in clusters; they live everywhere, including the bodies of plants, animals, and people; and their life lasts only for a fraction of a second.<ref>{{cite book |first=Upinder |last=Singh |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pq2iCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA315 |year=2008 |publisher=Pearson Education India |isbn=978-81-317-1677-9 |page=315 }}</ref> According to [[Mahavira]], the 24th preacher of Jainism, the humans destroy these nigodas on a massive scale, when they eat, breathe, sit, and move.<ref name="JDL_2013"/> Many modern Jains assert that Mahavira's teachings presage the existence of microorganisms as discovered by modern science.<ref>{{cite book |first=Paul |last=Dundas |title=The Jains |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X8iAAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA106 |year=2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-50165-6 |page=106 }}</ref>

The earliest known idea to indicate the possibility of diseases spreading by yet unseen organisms was that of the Roman scholar [[Marcus Terentius Varro]] in a 1st-century&nbsp;BC book entitled ''On Agriculture'' in which he called the unseen creatures animalia minuta, and warns against locating a homestead near a swamp:<ref name=Varro>''Varro on Agriculture'' 1, xii Loeb</ref>

{{blockquote|… and because there are bred certain minute creatures that cannot be seen by the eyes, which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and they cause serious diseases.<ref name=Varro/>}}

In ''[[The Canon of Medicine]]'' (1020), [[Avicenna]] suggested that [[tuberculosis]] and other diseases might be contagious.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Tschanz |first=David W. |title=Arab Roots of European Medicine |journal=Heart Views |volume=4 |issue=2 |url=http://www.hmc.org.qa/hmc/heartviews/h-v-v4%20n2/9.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110503050312/http://www.hmc.org.qa/hmc/heartviews/H-V-v4%20N2/9.htm |archive-date=3 May 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Advice to the Young Physician: On the Art of Medicine|url={{google books |plainurl=y|id=DoMVs4HuDAoC|page=33}} |last=Colgan|first=Richard |page=33 |publisher=Springer |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4419-1033-2}}</ref>