The Discoverer of the Cholera Germ.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 67, 13 September 1884, Page 5

The Discoverer of the Cholera Germ.

An interesting sketch of the life of Robert Koch, the discoverer of the cholera germ, the man whose name is at present in everybody's mouth, appears in a recent number of the " Gartenlaube." Dr. Koch, who is now forty-one years old, is a son of the Hart/, Mountain. In 1860 he took hisM.D. degree. For the next six years lie slowly and laboriously worked his way upward as assistant physician in out-of-tho-way hospitals. Fortune did not smooth his road, and when in 1572 he got an appointment at Wollstein the struggle for existence had again to be fought for seven years. Under circumstances so unfavourable for scientific research, ho prosecuted his studies ■with a success which secured a world-wide recognition of his genius. His first distinction was a\ on by the publication of the results of his quiet labour on the methods of the artificial dyeing of microscopic objects, especially of bacteria. By the general public his discovery could not be appreciated, but those who understood the value of these researches in the prosecution of the study of bacteria knew that with it a new era had dawned for science. This conviction has been brilliantly confirmed. During the last five years he has succeeded in identifying the gez'ms of cattle disease, of consumption, and of cholera. These discoveries are not incidental strokes of good luck, but the natural fruits of his own system of research. The significance of these discoveries is felt even by those who have no knowledge of medicine. Experiments in vaccination with the poisonous matter, experiments in disinfection in laboratories, wholesale experiments in the disappearance of epidemics — all these are but links in the chain, the last link of which, the destruction of the germ of the disease, is no more unattainable, but has become even probable. Honours have been conferred on Dr. Koch and his coleagues on coming homo from India, the breeding-place of cholera. They have received titles and order, to which, in honour of the personal danger of the voyage of discovery, were added such distinctions as otherwise are only conferred on soldiers. By addresses and banquets colleagues have honoured them, and it is said that the new Professorship of Hygiene at Berlin will be given to Dr. Koch. In short, outward acknowledgments have been plentifully made to the modest, quiet scholar. Although the Germans call him theirs with pride, he will always remain what he is, universal ; and he deserves to the full the honourable title of " benefactor of humanity." On tin outbreak of cholera at Toulon Dr. Koch was despatched thither to report, and the other day lie made the following statement to the "Times " correspondent :—: — "In Germany there isnot, as in France, an academy of medicine. I stopped on my way only a few hours at Paris, whero I saw the Minister, who recognised the official nature of my mission. My opinion is quite decided. The epidemic is Asiatic cholera. I share the opinion of all the doctors here. I havo not yet made autopsies, but at St. Mandrier this morning I witnessed the death of a patient who had been four days ill. This was not a sufficiently conclusive case, consequently I am waiting for a case of immediate death. The length of my stay depends on that, for as to the origin of the epidemic I have no doubt. Cholera comes from the extreme East, and with the relations now existing with those countries its transmission is easy. I hold that after a week infected linen can no longer contain dangerous microbes. The precautions taken at railway stations are nugatory. The danger is seated in the intestines, which you cannot reach by external fumigations. I have witnessed the autopsies by Dva. Roux and Strauss. I recognise the same microbes as those collected by me in Egypt and India. Dr Roux made sixteen autopsies. The microbes are microscopic, infinitesimally small, inclining to a crooked shape, and colourless. We perceive them by putting them into an aniline mixture, to which we can give various colours, in order to detect what 'bodies they contain. As instruments for detecting the microbes, I have placed at the service of these gentlemen what I used for observing phthisis, for I discovered the presence of microbes in the phthisical patients. The epidemic will reach Germany, I have no doubt, and, indeed, it will go everywhere, for once having a centre like Toulon it must spread, and I shall tell my countrymen what I have been telling you."