Agostino Bassi, sometimes called
de Lodi (25 September 1773 – 8 February 1856), was an
Italian entomologist. He preceded
Louis Pasteur in the discovery that microorganisms can be the cause of disease (the
germ theory of disease). 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 (insect), but also human diseases are caused by other living microorganisms; for example,
measles,
syphilis, and the
plague.