Robert Koch - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
Robert Koch - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
Robert Koch - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
Robert Koch
Robert
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Koch, in
full Introduction
Robert
Early training
Heinrich
Anthrax research
Robert Koch. Hermann
Contributions to general bacteriology
Koch, and pathology
(born Dec. 11, 1843, Clausthal, Hannover [now Studies of tuberculosis and cholera
Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Ger.]—died May 27, Historical assessment
1910, Baden-Baden, Ger.), German physician
and one of the founders of bacteriology. He
discovered the anthrax disease cycle (1876) and the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis
(1882) and cholera (1883). For his discoveries in regard to tuberculosis, he received the Nobel
Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1905.
Early training
Koch attended the University of Göttingen, where he studied medicine, graduating in 1866. He
then became a physician in various provincial towns. After serving briefly as a field surgeon
during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, he became district surgeon in Wollstein, where he
built a small laboratory. Equipped with a microscope, a microtome (an instrument for cutting
thin slices of tissue), and a homemade incubator, he began his study of algae, switching later to
pathogenic (disease-causing) organisms.
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10/21/23, 3:44 PM Robert Koch -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
In 1878 Koch summarized his experiments on the etiology of wound infection. By inoculating
animals with material from various sources, he produced six types of infection, each caused by
a specific microorganism. He then transferred these infections by inoculation through several
kinds of animals, reproducing the original six types. In that study, he observed differences in
pathogenicity for different species of hosts and demonstrated that the animal body is an
excellent apparatus for the cultivation of bacteria.
Koch, now recognized as a scientific investigator of the first rank, obtained a position in Berlin
in the Imperial Health Office, where he set up a laboratory in bacteriology. With his
collaborators, he devised new research methods to isolate pathogenic bacteria. Koch
determined guidelines to prove that a disease is caused by a specific organism. These four
basic criteria, called Koch’s postulates, are:
Meanwhile, Koch’s work was interrupted by an outbreak of cholera in Egypt and the danger of
its transmission to Europe. As a member of a German government commission, Koch went to
Egypt to investigate the disease. Although he soon had reason to suspect a particular comma-
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