826 ROBERT KOCH. 



contagium \-ivum upon a solid foundation, and showed the methods 

 of attack and control of pestilences. 



The opportunity offered itself, at this time, to study anthrax, which 

 formed the subject of his first recorded and published paper: ("Die 

 Atiologie der IMilzbrandkrankheit, begriindet auf die Entwickelungs- 

 geschichte des Bacillus anthracis," Cohn's Beitrdge z. Biologie der 

 Pflmizcn, II, 1876, 1 PI.) This was the first of the series of papers 

 upon this disease: studies which involved him in the bitter contro- 

 versy with Pasteur. Before this was finished, came his special 

 contributions on methods ("Verfahrung zur Untersuchung, zum 

 Konservieren und Photographieren der Bakterien," Cohn's Beitrdge, 

 II, 1877, and " Zur Untersuchung von pathogenen organismen," Mitt, 

 a. d. Kais. Gesundhcitsamte, I, Berlin, 1881). Then came his work 

 on suppurations and septicemias (" Untersuchung liber die Atiologie 

 der_ Wundinfektionskrankheiten," Leipzig, 1878) on disinfection 

 (" liber Desinfektion," Mitt. a. d. Kais. Gesund., I, Berlin, 1881), and 

 his results on tuberculosis, first indicated in 1882 (" Die Atiologie der 

 Tuberkulose. Nach einen in der Physiologische Geselleschaft zu 

 Berlin am 24 Marz, 1882, gehalten Vortrage, Berlin, Klin. Woch. 

 1882," and "Die Atiologie der Tuberkulose," Mitt. a. d. Kais. Gesund., 

 II, Berlin, 1884.) This subject took much of his attention for many 

 years, and as his demonstration of the etiological factor served to give 

 his reputation the solid world-wide acceptance that it received, so the 

 forced circumstances surrounding the announcement of the remedial 

 substance "tuberculin," and the disappointment of the extreme hopes 

 aroused, served to embitter much of his later life. The circumstances 

 of this occurrence are tragic, as those familiar with the facts well 

 know. In 1882, however, his work on tuberculosis was interrupted 

 by the expedition to Egypt and India for the study of cholera. The 

 results appeared in 1887 in a separate volume (Arb. a. d. Kais. Gesutid- 

 hcitsamt, 1887, III), and like all his previous communications bear the 

 marks of painstaking research and great accuracy. 



His work on "infectious-wound-diseases" especially aroused Cohn's 

 interest, so that through his influence, Koch became District Physician 

 m Breslau in 1S79. But his reputation was so rapidly growing that 

 on June 28, 1880, he was brought to the Kaiserlichen Gesundsheitsamt 

 m Berlin, and was at last free to work and carry out his great aims 

 uninterrupted. It was here that he perfected his methods of staining, 

 of photomicrography, and of solid culture media — all of them used 

 bolorc, but not widely known and accepted — methods that form the 

 base of much of our knowledge of microscopic organisms, and the 

 perfecting of which is in itself a claim to great distinction. 



