How Were Bacteria Understood in Evolutionary Theories in 19th century?

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This three-year project was undertaken to determine the place of bacteria in evolutionary theories in the 19th century. The first two years were spent on an investigation of extant material relating to this peculiar theme. Realizing how few materials there actually were, I extended my field of research to include, for example, fungi which caused plant disease; materials concerning which are more abundant as they were such a noted cause of potato and coffee blight in the 19th century.However, there was some interesting literature about English bacteriologists, who believed less in species specificity and more in frequent mutation as being characteristic of bacteria. English sanitarians sympathized with the German sanitarians such as Max von Pettenkofer in Munich, rather than with Robert Koch in Berlin. Koch, together with Ferdinand Cohn supported species specificity, but Carl von Nageli and Hans Buchner supported frequent bacterial mutation. English sanitarians, who tended to oppose Koch, believed easily in the evolution of bacteria.