1. Agostino Bassi, sometimes called de Lodi, was an Italian entomologist.
10 Facts About Agostino Bassi
1. 2.
Agostino Bassi preceded Louis Pasteur in the discovery that microorganisms can be the cause of disease.
3.
Agostino Bassi 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.
4.
Agostino Bassi was the son of a wealthy farmer and a lawyer who had a passion for biology.
5.
Agostino Bassi published the results of his investigations in a paper entitled Del mal del segno, calcinaccio o moscardino, stating that a living entity was the culprit, and that it was contagious; we now know that the powdery appearance on the killed silkworms is caused by the production of millions of infectious white fungal spores on the dead insect.
6.
Agostino Bassi is credited with rescuing the economically important silk industry, by recommendations like the use of disinfectants; separating the rows of feeding caterpillars; isolating and destroying infected caterpillars; and keeping the farms clean.
7.
Agostino Bassi thus preceded the work of Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch.
8.
Agostino Bassi was the author of work on the culture of potatoes, on cheese, wine making, leprosy and cholera.
9.
Agostino Bassi was buried in the Romanesque church of Saint Francis.
10.
The stamp features a portrait of Agostino Bassi bordered by silkmoth adults and pupae [1].