378 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



never would have been able to devote his life, energy and great genius 

 to those important discoveries through which thousands of lives have 

 been saved in all civilized countries during the past few decades. It 

 was while working in this governmental institution, which is doing 

 exactly the work the Owen bill asks the federal department to do, that 

 Koch discovered the tubercle bacillus and the bacillus of cholera. Be- 

 cause of the discovery of the comma bacillus, we no longer have those 

 fearful cholera epidemics which formerly decimated our own and other 

 countries. This disease can now be easily diagnosed and by proper 

 quarantine its mortality can be reduced to a minimum. And what 

 shall we say of the progress that has been made in the fight against 

 tuberculosis because the federal department of health of Germany en- 

 abled Koch to do research work and thus discover the bacillus of tuber- 

 culosis to be the primary and only direct cause of the disease? As 

 director of the hygienic institute and member of the Reichsgesund- 

 heitsamt he inaugurated that wonderfully effective campaign against 

 tuberculosis whereby the mortality from this disease in Germany has 

 been reduced to nearly one half of what it was prior to the discovery 

 of the tubercle bacillus. 



Under Koch's inspiration and guidance and in the same institute 

 many great scientific discoveries of incalculable value to humanity were 

 made. Foremost among them are the works of Ehrlich, one of Koch's 

 most celebrated pupils, who recently gave to the world a new remedy 

 which promises to prove a specific in an affliction from which mankind 

 has suffered for centuries. 



As co-worker in the Kaiserliche Gesundheitsamt and the Institute 

 for Infectious Diseases, affiliated therewith, we must also mention Behr- 

 ing, the discoverer of the anti-diphtheritic serum. Thanks to the dis- 

 covery of this serum thousands of young lives are now saved which would 

 formerly have fallen victims to the terrible disease known as malignant 

 diphtheria. This was made possible by the opportunity given to the 

 workers in the Eeichsgesundheitsamt and Imperial Institute for Infec- 

 tious Diseases. 



Can there be any better argument in favor of the establishment of 

 a federal department of health? 



