Robert Koch.

  • Sigard Adolphus Knopf
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Robert Koch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [428J culosis, the Koch Institute or Foundation is destined to study the underlying causes and as yet unsolved problems of the disease and thus will benefit mankind at large. Mr. Carnegie is to me the embodiment of all the best qualities of an Ameri¬ can. His ideals are the highest and noblest. Koch had a remarkable genius for research work, yet his aim was always eminently practical and his sympathies genu¬ ine and real. By hard work and diligent application he revealed to us the hidden mysteries of disease. Koch was not privileged to see the foundation for further tuberculosis research work, bearing his name, completed. He died on May 27, 1910, surrounded by devoted pupils and friends. By indubitable right he now takes his place with the Immortals and his name will be handed down through genera¬ tions to come as one who lived and labored for the good of mankind. In accordance with Koch’s last request, his funeral was of the simplest kind, and as an enthusiastic sanitarian he had directed his body to be cremated. His admirers and pupils gathered the ashes of the beloved master and enshrined them in a mausoleum located in the Institut fur Infektionskrarik- heiten in Berlin, of which Koch had been a director for many years. I venture to say that for generations to come, all physicians and likewise the many men and women outside of the pro¬ fession who are interested in scientific or preventive medicine will, on visiting Berlin, deem it a pious duty to make a pil¬ grimage to this last resting-place of the ashes of Robert Koch. When Professor Koch wrote me the last time he honored me by sending his photograph taken a short time before he fell ill. This picture is considered by all who knew Koch one of his best. He graced it with his signature dated February 9, 1910. In availing myself of the permission granted to me to present you with an enlarged reproduction, I beg you to accept it from one of the thousands of humble disciples of the great master as a feeble tribute to him and as a token of esteem for the officers and members of your society. Let this portrait, which shall henceforth grace the walls of this great university, this likeness of a prince of science,