The disease Tuberculosis is as old as the mankind. It has been demonstrated in ancient Egyptian mummies (100 BC) and has found a mention in very old literature. Hippocrates called it Pthisis. It was a great killer rightly called the "captain among these men f death".
The possible infectious nature of the disease was speculated for many centuries. Hippocrates and Galen had suspected its contagious nature. Laennec was convinced that the tubercle was the common factor of all forms of tuberculosis. Schonlein gave it the name "tuberculosis" in 1839. Pasteur's germ theory in 1862 gave impetus to the research. Jean Antonie Villermin in 1862 proved that animals can get the disease from man by inoculation. Only demonstration of the causative agent remained. There was virtually a race among researchers to do this and finally in 1882, Robert Koch won the race!
On the 24 th day of March 1882, in the monthly meeting of the Berlin Physiological Society the formal announcement about the discovery of the tubercle bacillus was made.The meeting was chaired by DuBois Reymond and Helmholtz, Leoffler, Ehrlich and other medical luminaries were also present. There was no applause for the presentation though the audience must have sensed that this was going to be an important invention in the history of Medicine.The reason why it was not announced in the meeting of the Pathological society was because of the poor vibes Robert Koch shared with Rudolf Virchow, (Professor of Pathology), then a dominant figure in the Berlin Medicine. Robert Koch went on to further research in the field. He believed that the Tuberculin was the treatment of tuberculosis. Though he was proved wrong later, it became an important as a diagnostic tool in the management of tuberculosis.
Koch used Methylene blue as the stain. Culture proved to be difficult. Prof. John Tyndall of Londin used the term "Koch,s bacillus" which was widely accepted all over the world. Erlich developed a method of staining which proved to be superior. In 1887, Ehlich tested his own sputum and found it to be positive! In a paper in 1884, he described what was later came to be known as Koch's postulates. Much earlier, in 1876 he had already described very virulent, spore forming Anthrax bacillus. He visited India in 1883 and identified Vibrio cholerae. During the second visit at the behest of teh British government, he carried out important work on Bubonic Plague , proving that it was transmitted to the humans by the rat flea.
Robert Koch married his childhood friend Emily Fraaz in 1876. It was a happy mariage in the beginning and they had a daughter in 1878. However after 20 years of he married life, the relationship broke down and ended in a divorce in 1897. 2 months after the divorce, at the age of 50, he married a young actress Fraulein Freiburg who was only 21. The second marriage was followed by a social boycott and was forced to spend much time abroad.
In 1883, a controversy arose when Pastuer, calling himself 'second Jenner' tried to use methods of inoculation with the hope of preventing certain diseases. He used nasal discharge from horses who had supposedly died from horse typhoid and inoculated the rabbits with it. He used saliva from children with hydrophobia and inoculated the rabbits with it. When the findings were presented and discussed, Robert Koch took serious objections - the causative organism was not conclusively proved and the whole experiment was unsatisfactory. He claimed that the death of rabbits in both instances was due to septicemia. Despite all these shortcomings, Pasteur was considered a genuine "path breaker"
For all his discoveries concerning tuberculosis, Robert Koch was considered the father of scientific study of tuberculosis. In 1905, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
The possible infectious nature of the disease was speculated for many centuries. Hippocrates and Galen had suspected its contagious nature. Laennec was convinced that the tubercle was the common factor of all forms of tuberculosis. Schonlein gave it the name "tuberculosis" in 1839. Pasteur's germ theory in 1862 gave impetus to the research. Jean Antonie Villermin in 1862 proved that animals can get the disease from man by inoculation. Only demonstration of the causative agent remained. There was virtually a race among researchers to do this and finally in 1882, Robert Koch won the race!
On the 24 th day of March 1882, in the monthly meeting of the Berlin Physiological Society the formal announcement about the discovery of the tubercle bacillus was made.The meeting was chaired by DuBois Reymond and Helmholtz, Leoffler, Ehrlich and other medical luminaries were also present. There was no applause for the presentation though the audience must have sensed that this was going to be an important invention in the history of Medicine.The reason why it was not announced in the meeting of the Pathological society was because of the poor vibes Robert Koch shared with Rudolf Virchow, (Professor of Pathology), then a dominant figure in the Berlin Medicine. Robert Koch went on to further research in the field. He believed that the Tuberculin was the treatment of tuberculosis. Though he was proved wrong later, it became an important as a diagnostic tool in the management of tuberculosis.
Koch used Methylene blue as the stain. Culture proved to be difficult. Prof. John Tyndall of Londin used the term "Koch,s bacillus" which was widely accepted all over the world. Erlich developed a method of staining which proved to be superior. In 1887, Ehlich tested his own sputum and found it to be positive! In a paper in 1884, he described what was later came to be known as Koch's postulates. Much earlier, in 1876 he had already described very virulent, spore forming Anthrax bacillus. He visited India in 1883 and identified Vibrio cholerae. During the second visit at the behest of teh British government, he carried out important work on Bubonic Plague , proving that it was transmitted to the humans by the rat flea.
Robert Koch married his childhood friend Emily Fraaz in 1876. It was a happy mariage in the beginning and they had a daughter in 1878. However after 20 years of he married life, the relationship broke down and ended in a divorce in 1897. 2 months after the divorce, at the age of 50, he married a young actress Fraulein Freiburg who was only 21. The second marriage was followed by a social boycott and was forced to spend much time abroad.
In 1883, a controversy arose when Pastuer, calling himself 'second Jenner' tried to use methods of inoculation with the hope of preventing certain diseases. He used nasal discharge from horses who had supposedly died from horse typhoid and inoculated the rabbits with it. He used saliva from children with hydrophobia and inoculated the rabbits with it. When the findings were presented and discussed, Robert Koch took serious objections - the causative organism was not conclusively proved and the whole experiment was unsatisfactory. He claimed that the death of rabbits in both instances was due to septicemia. Despite all these shortcomings, Pasteur was considered a genuine "path breaker"
For all his discoveries concerning tuberculosis, Robert Koch was considered the father of scientific study of tuberculosis. In 1905, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
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