|
Today is the birth day of
Robert Koch, famously known as "Father of Bacteriology" . Below is a rare photograph of Robert Koch visiting India in 1897. This rare photograph is shared from the collections of Professor Dr. C.S.Bhaskaran, a renowned microbiologist and a great teacher with a passion towards history and developments of microbiology as a science.
***
In 1897, Robert Koch visited
IVRI at Mukteswar.
(click on the image for a larger size)
History of the visit and IVRI :
Source : http://ivri.nic.in/
The Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) at Izatnagar
was initially established as the Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory in 1889 at
Pune for conducting research for the protection of Indian livestock
wealth from the dreaded diseases. Dr. Alfred Lingard, a distinguished medical
bacteriologist was appointed in 1891 as incharge of the laboratory. Within a
short period of two years the seriousness and danger of handling the
micro-organisms of infectious diseases and pathological materials in the
densely populated city of Pune was realised and consequently, the laboratory
was shifted in 1893 to an isolated but beautiful site amidst the dense conifer
forest of Mukteswar in Kumaon hills of the Himalayas situated at about 1500 m
above the mean sea level in United Province. Lingard had studied bacteriology
in Germany and was instrumental for the historical visit of three renowned
bacteriologists, Drs. Robert Koch, Pfeiffer and Gaffky to Mukteswar in 1897 to
advise on methods for the prevention and control of rinderpest.
***
A TRIBUTE TO ROBERT KOCH
Robert Heinrich Herman
Koch was born on December 11, 1843, at Clausthal [now Clausthal-Zellerfeld,
Ger.] in the Upper Harz Mountains. In
1862 Koch went to the University of Göttingen to study medicine. Here the
Professor of Anatomy was Jacob Henle and Koch was, no doubt, influenced by
Henle's view, published in 1840, that infectious diseases were caused by
living, parasitic organisms. After taking his M.D. degree in 1866, Koch went to
Berlin for six months of chemical study and there came under the influence of
Virchow. In 1867 he settled, after a period as Assistant in the General Hospital
at Hamburg, in general practice, first at Langenhagen and soon after, in 1869,
at Rackwitz, in the Province of Posen. Here he passed his District Medical
Officer's Examination. In 1870 he volunteered for service in the
Franco-Prussian war and from 1872 to 1880 he was District Medical Officer for
Wollstein. It was here that he carried out the epoch-making researches which
placed him at one step in the front rank of scientific workers.
The founder of modern bacteriology,
he is known for his role in identifying the specific causative agents of
tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax and for giving experimental support for the
concept of infectious disease. In
addition to his trail-blazing studies on these diseases, Koch created and
improved laboratory technologies and techniques in the field of microbiology,
and made key discoveries in public health. His research led to the creation of
Koch’s postulates, a series of four generalized principles linking specific
microorganisms to specific diseases that remain today the "gold
standard" in medical microbiology.
As a result of his groundbreaking research on tuberculosis, Koch
received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1905.
1. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1905/koch-bio.html 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Koch |
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Robert Koch: A Tribute
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment