Robert Koch.

  • Sigard Adolphus Knopf
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Robert Koch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that he had not experimented with it long enough. The year [426] 1890 was indeed an unhappy one in Koch’s brilliant career. The powerful product used in far too large doses by inex¬ perienced men indiscriminately in early and late cases was followed by disastrous results. But time has justified Koch’s original claim, and to-day his tuberculin in the hands of careful clinicians has certainly proven to be, in certain cases of tuberculosis, a valuable therapeutic adjuvant. Koch did not limit his researches to the bacteriological causes of tuberculosis or to the discovery of tuberculin, and it may be a surprise to many to learn what a deep interest he took in the sociological aspect of tuberculosis. He studied all sides of the question—municipal control, popular edu¬ cation, the housing problem, etc. More than once did he express to me personally his approval of Professor Biggs’ work in Hew York relating to the municipal control of tuber¬ culosis, and he also referred to it in his celebrated London address in 1901. In regard to this communication made before the British Congress, justice requires us to say that Koch’s conclusions as to the rarity of the transmission of bovine tuberculosis to human beings were too sweeping, this having been borne out by subsequent investigations. But had it not been for Koch’s London address, much scientific work which has now cleared [4271 up the controversy would not have been done. Koch’s last paper, read before the Academy of Sciences of Berlin on April 7, 1910, only about six weeks before his death, and published in the Zeitschrift fur Hygiene und Infehtions- krankheiten October 28, 1910 (Yol. LXVII, Ho. 1), showed his deep interest in the sociological aspect of tuberculosis. The article was entitled “ The Epidemiology of Tuberculosis.” In it he very justly ascribes the still very great prevalence of tuberculosis in certain sections of Europe to the unfortunate housing conditions and particularly to the overcrowded sleep¬ ing quarters of the masses. He also came to the conclusion that where institutional care had been most readily available, the morbidity and mortality from tuberculosis has been re¬ duced to the greatest extent, and vice-versa.