ABSTRACT
Science has quite naturally become preoccupied with all matters that directly impact the human species. As a result, it is not surprising that the greatest attention in bacteriology has focused on identifying and managing to control the recognized bacterial pathogens of humans and economically important animals and plants. During the 19th century, two major events affected the direction of bacteriology as a science. The first was the political need to combat bacteriologically influenced diseases, particularly when populations were becoming concentrated into industrialized communities. The second was the uncertainty whether bacteriology was a subdiscipline of zoology or botany or, from a religious perspective, simply the work of the devil. Louis Pasteur resolved the latter concern with his elegantly simple proof that there was no such thing as spontaneous generation by evil forces such as Satan; the devil was not involved.
