Bassi, Agostino

Bassi, Agostino

(born Sept. 25, 1773, near Lodi, Lombardy, Habsburg crown land—died Feb. 8, 1856, Lodi) Italian bacteriologist. He attended Pavia University. In 1807 he began an investigation of the silkworm disease muscardine, which was causing serious economic losses in Italy and France. After 25 years of research, he demonstrated that the disease was contagious and was caused by a microscopic parasitic fungus spread among the silkworms by contact and infected food. He announced his discoveries in 1835 and theorized that many plant, animal, and human diseases are caused by animal or vegetable parasites, thus preceding both Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch in formulating a germ theory of disease.