In the late 19th century deadly diseases such as tuberculosis and anthrax were unstoppable killers. Doctors were helpless to prevent or effectively treat their patients because nobody knew what caused the disease in the first place. It wasn't until German scientist Robert Koch showed anthrax and other scourges were caused by specific types of bacteria that mankind began to win the war on disease. In addition to being a renowned researcher, Koch was also an important technical innovator. He was the first to develop an effective system for staining and photographing the microbes he studied under the microscope, the first to establish a scientific protocol to isolate and identify pathogens, and the first to use agar as a medium to grow bacterial cultures in the lab. Koch's lifelong dedication to eradicating disease earned him the 1905 Nobel Prize for Medicine and ensured his legacy as the founder of modern bacteriology. Book jacket.
This collection of translations of some of Koch's important essays represents an important first. It includes three of his essays on anthrax, three on tuberculosis, two on cholera, one on wound infections, and a relective essay entitled On Bacteriological Research. These papers clearly reflect the coherence and inter-connectedness of Koch's thought. They include the initial presentation of his ideas and also provide examples of his tenacious and devasting responses to his critics. While they only represent some of the many areas of Koch's interests, they serve as excellent samples of his finest contributions. The volume also includes a long introduction which establishes the historical context of Koch's work and of the particular essays translated here.
In bacteriology's Golden Age (roughly 1870-1890) European physicians focused on bacteria as causal agents of disease. Advances in microscopy and laboratory methodology--including the ability to isolate and identify micro-organisms--played critical roles. Robert Koch, the most well known of the European researchers for his identification of the etiological agents of anthrax, tuberculosis and cholera, established in Germany the first teaching laboratory for training physicians in the new methods. Bacteriology was largely absent in early U.S. medical schools. Dozens of American physicians-in-training enrolled in Koch's course in Germany, and many established bacteriology courses upon their return. This book highlights those who became acknowledged leaders in the field and whose work remains influential.
Robert Koch's story is a stirring example of how a lone country doctor can rise above all odds to become a true scientific revolutionary. Winner of the Nobel Prize in 1905, Koch is best known today for his discoveries of the causal agents of tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax. His vital contributions to microbiological methodology also make him the founder of the field of bacteriology and central to the establishment of the disciplines of hygiene and public health.He was also a world traveler and made numerous important research expeditions to India (where he discovered the cause of cholera), Africa, and New Guinea. Koch's postulates, a series of guidelines for the experimental study of infectious disease, permitted Koch and his students to identify many of the causes of the most important infectious diseases of humans and animals. Even today Koch's postulates are considered whenever a new infectious disease arises.
NO OTHER scientist has so aptly earned the title of “father” of his branch of science than Robert Koch. While Pasteur is regarded as the greatest applied bacteriologist, it was Koch who first perfected the pure techniques of cultivating and studying bacteria. When Koch succeeded in isolating the dreaded anthrax bacillus, he became the first to prove that a specific bacterium was the cause of a specific disease. He also developed four famous rules—still in use today—for relating one kind of bacteria to one kind of disease. Later, he succeeded in growing pure cultures of bacteria, an essential technique in modern bacteriology. In 1882, Koch astounded the scientific world by first isolating the tubercle bacillus—the cause of tuberculosis. Later he discovered tuberculin, a substance used in diagnosing tuberculosis today. A tireless worker, Koch went on to save thousands of lives, both human and animal, through his investigation of Asiatic cholera, sleeping sickness, malaria, Texas fever, rinderpest, and Rhodesian red water fever.
During the surge of the deadliest and cruellest disease in history comes the unexpected encounter of two great men- one a pioneer of modern science, the other a pioneer of modern literature. In The Remedy, Thomas Goetz chronicles the riveting story of Robert Koch, a provincial doctor turned revolutionary scientist whose kitchen-sink discoveries inspired a new age of medicine - and ultimately aroused the interest and then the suspicion of another ambitious doctor, Arthur Conan Doyle. The account begins in 1875, when a diagnosis of tuberculosis or consumption, was a death sentence. Doctors had little in their arsenal for treating this cunning disease and were even less certain about what caused it. But a scientific revolution was brewing. Koch, armed with but a microscope and a notebook, began to methodically pursue these things called 'germs'. His biggest discovery - one that would push medicine out of the dark ages - was of the bacteria that caused tuberculosis. After the accolades and honors, Koch set his sights on a greater glory- not just to identify the cause but to create a cure. And then, he had it. When Koch announced his remedy for tuberculosis in 1890, euphoria swept the globe. Physician and aspiring writer Arthur Conan Doyle joined the throngs racing to Berlin for the public demonstration. But amid the frenzy over Koch's remedy, Conan Doyle quietly toured the wards of treated patients. He was staggered by what he found- Koch's remedy was either sloppy science or outright fraud. Conan Doyle has no choice but to accuse one of the world's greatest scientists of an unfathomable error. The question was this- Whom would the world believe? The Remedy, is a stunning tale of ambition and hubris, of discovery and deceit. It chronicles the profound shift in medical science from the nineteenth century of cod-liver oil and leeches to the twentieth century of microscopes and antibiotics. And it vividly explores how modern medicine emerges, not as the inevitable march of progress but as a lurching tumult of failed experiments and petty rivalries. In a brilliant interweaving of scientific and literary history, Goetz vividly shows that Koch and Conan Doyle shared more than a chance meeting- they were collaborators in the new age of medicine. What Koch proved in his laboratory Conan Doyle brought to the world through his literature - especially through his new scientific detective, Sherlock Holmes. As The Remedy makes clear, without Robert Koch, Sherlock Holmes would never have existed.
In the nineteenth century, the new field of medical bacteriology identified microorganisms and explained how they spread disease. This book interweaves the history of this discipline and the biography of one of its founders, Nobel Prize–winning German physician Robert Koch (1843–1910). Koch contributed to modern medicine by inventing or improving fundamental techniques such as bacterial staining, solid culture media, mass pure cultures, and the use of animal models. His discoveries, which dominated medical science at the turn of the last century, are epitomized in a set of rules named after him. "Koch's Postulates" are still invoked today in attempts to prove the causal involvement of pathogens in infectious diseases. In a double history, Christoph Gradmann narrates the development of a discipline and the biography of a scientist. Drawing on Koch's extensive laboratory notes, Gradmann details how Koch developed his scientific method and discovered the bacterial causes of anthrax, tuberculosis, and cholera. Koch tried to bring this knowledge to clinical medicine by developing medicines that would specifically target the bacterial pathogens he identified. And Koch’s passion for personal travel developed into a career signature, as he became a pioneer in the study of tropical diseases. A fascinating look into Koch's personality and his experimental work in medical bacteriology, Laboratory Disease reveals both the biographical and the historical roots of our modern understanding of infectious diseases.
Stark offers a fresh perspective on the history of infectious disease. He examines anthrax in terms of local, national and global significance, and constructs a narrative that spans public, professional and geographic domains.
