Highlights in the History of Microbiology 43 



faction. One of these embarrassingly perplexing problems was 

 that of the "curse" of some fields in which grazing sheep died like 

 flies long after any infected sheep had succumbed on the premises. 

 If bacteria were spread from one person to another or from one 

 animal to another, how did Koch propose to explain the infectivity 

 of these grazing lands after the broiling sun had baked the area 

 for months and the freezing winds of winter had subjected the 

 land to such rigorous treatment? At the moment Koch had no 

 answer, but he proposed to find the explanation if one was to be 

 had. 



It was a puzzling situation indeed, for had he not seen these 

 same organisms shrivel up and disintegrate on his glass slides when 

 they were allowed to dry? Certainly that would indicate that the 

 bacteria were dead and no longer able to generate their own kind. 

 Fortunate accidents have resulted in many great discoveries, and 

 fate decided to step in at this juncture and give the answer to a 

 man who was clever enough to capitalize on an accident. One of 

 his ox-eye fluid cultures happened to be left out on his laboratory 

 table for a twenty-four-hour period. Normally such preparations 

 would have been discarded in some chemical fluid, but Koch de- 

 cided to take just one more look at this dried specimen under his 

 microscope before discarding the slide. Lo and behold, his 

 thread-like germs had been transformed into a string of glistening 

 bead-like structures. Upon closer examination he discovered that 

 these beads were within faintly outlined rod-like objects, slightly 

 suggestive of his original organisms. At the time he felt that some 

 contaminating bacteria had found their way into his carefully pre- 

 pared slides, so he didn't think too much about it. Nevertheless, 

 he did, again quite by chance rather than by design, keep his slide 

 for several more months before he came across it once more and 

 decided to confirm his original observation of the beads. Things 

 had not changed in the interval, the beads were there glistening as 

 before. He added some fresh ox-eye fluid to the dried slide and 

 watched under his lenses to see what these supposedly contaminat- 

 ing forms would turn out to be. Within a few hours he really was 

 jolted when before his eyes he watched the individual beads dis- 



