HIS LIFE AND LABOURS. 191 



Malignant Pustule), which seemed to me to mark an 

 epoch in the history of this formidable disease. With 

 admirable patience, skill, and penetration Koch fol- 

 lowed up the life-history of bacillus anthracis, the con- 

 tagium of this fever. At the time here referred to he 

 was a young physician holding a small appointment in 

 the neighbourhood of Breslau, and it was easy to pre- 

 dict, and indeed I predicted at the time, that he would 

 soon find himself in a higher position. When I next 

 heard of him he was head of the Imperial Sanitary 

 Institute of Berlin. Koch's recent history is pretty 

 well known in England, while his appreciation by the 

 German Government is shown by the rewards and 

 honours lately conferred upon him. 



Koch was not the discoverer of the parasite of 

 splenic fever. Davaine and Raver, in 1850, had ob- 

 served the little microscopic rods in the blood of ani- 

 mals which had died of splenic fever. But they were 

 quite unconscious of the significance of their observa- 

 tion, and for thirteen years, as M. Eadot informs us, 

 strangely let the matter drop. In 1863 Davaine's atten- 

 tion was again directed to the subject by the researches 

 of Pasteur, and he then pronounced the parasite to 

 be the cause of the fever. He was opposed by some 

 of his fellow-countrymen; long discussions followed, 

 and a second period of thirteen years, ending with the 

 publication of Koch's paper, elapsed before M. Pas- 

 teur took up the question. I always, indeed, assumed 

 that from the paper of the learned German came the 

 impulse towards a line of inquiry in which M. Pas- 

 teur has achieved such splendid results. Things pre- 

 senting themselves thus to my mind, M. Eadot will, 

 I trust, forgive me if I say that it was with very great 

 regret that I perused the disparaging references to Dr. 

 Koch which occur in the chapter on splenic fever. 



