PRliPARATORV TO Rl SI! ARCH CARLliR 59 



cholera. He " discovered the cholera vibrio, its transmission by 

 drinking water, food, and clothing, and incidentally found the 

 microorganisms of Egyptian ophthalmia or infectious conjuncti- 

 vitis (Koch-W'ceks bacillus, 1883), for which results he received a 

 donation of 100,000 marks from the Prussian " ^"' government, 

 and in 188*) was appointed Professor of Hygiene and Bacteriology 

 at the University of Berlin. Under his tutelage some of the 

 world's most brilliant medical research scientists were to be de- 

 veloped: Emil von Bchring, Shibasaburo Kitasato, Friedrich 

 LofHer, Richard Pfeiffer, Albert Friinkel, William Henry Welch, 

 flnd others. Each gained eminence in his own right, and Koch was 

 accompanied on the Egypt-India Cholera Commission journey by, 

 among others, Georg Gaffky, who took Koch's place in charge of 

 the expedition and was later succeeded by Loffler.^°^ 



Erwin Smith, presumably in the year 1884, abstracted for his 

 " Index Rerum " a translation of a report (or abstract of a report) 

 made by Koch from Calcutta, India, to the German government. 

 His abstract, entitled "Asiatic Cholera" and based on material 

 taken from the Journal d' Hygiene, read as follows: 



Dr. Koch now thinks he has established what seemed probable from 

 his Egyptian researches, but not then certain, i. e. that cholera is caused by 

 a minute transparent highly refractive bacillus. This bacillus resembles a 

 comma, or bow in shape, and is endowed with active motion. He has 

 made 17 dissections of cadavers and examined 27 other cholera patients, 

 and in each case found this specific bacillus in the rice water discharges, 

 as well as in the intestines. In no case was he able to discover it in the 

 dejections of persons suffering from other diseases, even diarrhea, or by 

 most careful examination of cadavers of persons, dead of other diseases. 



The most important practical points of the report are: 1. A moderate 

 amount of heat kills this bacillus. 2. It grows rapidly in artificial culture 

 fluid, under proper conditions and on moist clothing, blotting paper, or 

 moist earth. 3. It requires an alkaline solution in which to develop. 

 [Ajcids, even weak solutions, kill it. The acids of a healthy stomach offer 

 to it an impossible barrier. Koch further notes in this connection the fact 

 that persons suffering from disorders of the stomach are most likely to 

 be attacked by cholera. 



Soon we shall again consider research in cholera, and Smith's 

 interest in methods to prevent epidemics of the malady by sanitary 



^°' F. H. Garrison, Intro, to the hist, of f)ied., op. cit., 579. 



'^"^ Idem, 579. See also, V. C. Vaughan, A doctor's memories, op. cit., 146; 

 also, William Henry Welch etc., op. cit., 147-149; also, Douglas James Guthrie, 

 A history of medicine, Phila., J. B. Lippincott Co., 237-288, 1946. 



