Editing Microorganism (section)

===Early modern===
{{More information|Microscopic discovery of bacteria}}

Turkish scientist [[Akshamsaddin]] mentioned the microbe in his work {{tlit|ota|Maddat ul-Hayat}} (The Material of Life) about two centuries prior to Leeuwenhoek's experimental discovery:
{{blockquote|It is a mistake to assume that diseases appear in individuals one by one. Diseases are transmitted from person to person. This transmission takes place through small seeds that are invisible to the eye, but are still alive.<ref>Taşköprülüzâde: ''Shaqaiq-e Numaniya'', v. 1, p. 48</ref><ref>Osman Şevki Uludağ: ''Beş Buçuk Asırlık Türk Tabâbet Tarihi'' (Five and a Half Centuries of Turkish Medical History). Istanbul, 1969, pp. 35–36</ref>}}

In [[1546 in science#Medicine|1546]], [[Girolamo Fracastoro]] proposed that [[epidemic diseases]] were caused by transferable seedlike entities that could transmit infection by direct or indirect contact, or even without contact over long distances.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Nutton |first=Vivian |title=The Reception of Fracastoro's Theory of Contagion: The Seed That Fell among Thorns? |journal=[[Osiris (journal)|Osiris]]|year=1990 |volume=2nd Series, Vol. 6, Renaissance Medical Learning: Evolution of a Tradition |pages=196–234 |jstor=301787 |doi=10.1086/368701|pmid=11612689 |s2cid=37260514 }}</ref>

[[Antonie van Leeuwenhoek]] is considered to be one of the [[List of people considered father or mother of a scientific field|fathers of microbiology]]. He was the first in 1673 to discover and conduct scientific experiments with microorganisms, using simple single-lensed [[Microscope|microscopes]] of his own design.<ref>{{Cite journal | last=Leeuwenhoek |first=A. | title=Part of a Letter from Mr Antony van Leeuwenhoek, concerning the Worms in Sheeps Livers, Gnats, and Animalcula in the Excrements of Frogs | journal=Philosophical Transactions | volume=22 | pages=509–518 | year=1753 | doi=10.1098/rstl.1700.0013 | issue=260–276 | bibcode=1700RSPT...22..509V | doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal| last=Leeuwenhoek |first=A. |author-link=Antony van Leeuwenhoek | title=Part of a Letter from Mr Antony van Leeuwenhoek, F. R. S. concerning Green Weeds Growing in Water, and Some Animalcula Found about Them | journal=Philosophical Transactions | volume=23 | pages=1304–1311 |year=1753 | doi=10.1098/rstl.1702.0042 | issue=277–288 | bibcode=1702RSPT...23.1304V |s2cid=186209549 }}</ref><ref name="NickLane_RS">{{cite journal |author-link=Nick Lane |last=Lane |first=Nick |title=The Unseen World: Reflections on Leeuwenhoek (1677) 'Concerning Little Animal' |journal=Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci |volume=370 |issue=1666 |pages=20140344 |year=2015 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2014.0344|pmid=25750239 |pmc=4360124 }}</ref><ref>Payne, A. S. ''The Cleere Observer: A Biography of Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek'', p. 13, Macmillan, 1970</ref> [[Robert Hooke]], a contemporary of Leeuwenhoek, also used [[microscopy]] to observe microbial life in the form of the fruiting bodies of [[Mold (fungus)|mould]]s. In his [[1665#July–December|1665]] book ''[[Micrographia]]'', he made drawings of studies, and he coined the term ''[[Cell (biology)|cell]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gest |first=H. |title=The remarkable vision of Robert Hooke (1635–1703): first observer of the microbial world |journal=Perspect. Biol. Med. |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=266–272 |year=2005 |pmid=15834198 |doi=10.1353/pbm.2005.0053|s2cid=23998841 }}</ref>