Robert Koch And The Study Of Anthrax

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.

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.

Science, Medicine, and Animals explains the role that animals play in biomedical research and the ways in which scientists, governments, and citizens have tried to balance the experimental use of animals with a concern for all living creatures. An accompanying Teacher's Guide is available to help teachers of middle and high school students use Science, Medicine, and Animals in the classroom. As students examine the issues in Science, Medicine, and Animals, they will gain a greater understanding of the goals of biomedical research and the real-world practice of the scientific method in general. Science, Medicine, and Animals and the Teacher's Guide were written by the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research and published by the National Research Council of the National Academies. The report was reviewed by a committee made up of experts and scholars with diverse perspectives, including members of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institutes of Health, the Humane Society of the United States, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The Teacher's Guide was reviewed by members of the National Academies' Teacher Associates Network. Science, Medicine, and Animals is recommended by the National Science Teacher's Association NSTA Recommends.

The riveting history of tuberculosis, the world’s most lethal disease, the two men whose lives it tragically intertwined, and the birth of medical science. In 1875, tuberculosis was the deadliest disease in the world, accountable for a third of all deaths. A diagnosis of TB—often called consumption—was a death sentence. Then, in a triumph of medical science, a German doctor named Robert Koch deployed an unprecedented scientific rigor to discover the bacteria that caused TB. Koch soon embarked on a remedy—a remedy that would be his undoing. When Koch announced his cure for consumption, Arthur Conan Doyle, then a small-town doctor in England and sometime writer, went to Berlin to cover the event. Touring the ward of reportedly cured patients, he was horrified. Koch’s “remedy” was either sloppy science or outright fraud. But to a world desperate for relief, Koch’s remedy wasn’t so easily dismissed. As Europe’s consumptives descended upon Berlin, Koch urgently tried to prove his case. Conan Doyle, meanwhile, returned to England determined to abandon medicine in favor of writing. In particular, he turned to a character inspired by the very scientific methods that Koch had formulated: Sherlock Holmes. Capturing the moment when mystery and magic began to yield to science, The Remedy chronicles the stunning story of how the germ theory of disease became a true fact, how two men of ambition were emboldened to reach for something more, and how scientific discoveries evolve into social truths.

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