Abstract:
The first written reference to microscopic life in the soil is attributed by Waksman (1952) to Columella, a Roman writer. In 60 B.C. he wrote of marshes throwing up "noxious and poisonous steams" and breeding "animals armed with poisonous stings" whereby "hidden diseases are often contracted, the causes of which even physicians cannot properly understand." This illustrates the advantages of the microscope, without which our modern understanding of microbiology would have been unattainable.
Interest in soil organisms developed in the latter part of the 17th century with reports such as that of Athanasius Kircheus, who in 1671 warned of the disease-causing "animalcules" which he had observed from marshy lands. However, soil microbiology generated less interest than soil chemistry, so that between the 17th and 19th centuries the topics of nitrification, humus formation and the decomposition of organic matter received a great deal of attention from soil chemists, with little or no consideration of the biological nature of these processes. During this time also attempts were made to classify bacteria, but microbiologists gave no more thought to microbial metabolism than did soil chemists. Even when the association was established between microorganisms and decay and fermentation of foodstuffs, realisation came slowly of the similarity between these and the processes involved in the formation of soil.
