caption death_date death_place influenced birth_place influences image_size nationality field birth_date known_for image article_title name
agostino bassi 8 february 1856 lodi , lombardy louis pasteur mairago , lombardy lazzaro spallanzani 230px italian entomology 25 september 1773 beauveria bassiana agostino bassi by g.c. ainsworth.jpg agostino bassi
 agostino bassi
agostino bassi

agostino bassi , sometimes called de lodi -lrb- 25 september 1773 -- 8 february 1856 -rrb- , was an italian entomologist .
he preceded louis pasteur in the discovery that microorganisms can be the cause of disease -lrb- the germ theory of disease -rrb- .
he discovered that the muscardine disease of silkworms was caused by a living , very small , parasitic organism , a fungus that would be named eventually `` beauveria bassiana '' in his honor .
in 1844 , he stated the idea that not only animal -lrb- insect -rrb- , but also human diseases are caused by other living microorganisms ; for example , measles , syphilis , and the plague .
