Robert Koch

Robert Koch was a prominent German bacteriologist, the founder of modern microbiology. He was born in 1843. As a boy he was interested in small insects and animals and collected them in his room. He observed details through the magnifying glass, because he wanted to know everything about the inner structure of animal¢ s body. Once as he tried to cut a rat on the dining table a big quarrel arose between him, his brother and parents. Only his uncle supported Robert¢ s occupations. He helped him to become a medical student of the famous Gottingen University. When Koch became a doctor he carried on many experiments on mice in his laboratory. In 1882 Koch discovered tuberculosis bacilli. In his report made in the Berlin Physiological Society Koch described in detail the morphology of tuberculosis bacilli and the ways to reveal them. Due to his discovery Koch became known all over the world. In 1883 he went to Egypt to study cholera. At that time there was a wide-spread epidemic of this terrible plague. Nobody knew the origin of this disease; there were not any protective measures against it. The disease spread very rapidly from one place to anoth­er and thousands of people died. But sometimes some people who were in a constant contact with the dis­eased person did not catch cholera. As soon as Koch began his investigations he found in blood, kidneys, spleen, liver and lungs of the people who died of cholera many microorganisms but all of them were not the agents of cholera. However in the walls of the intestines and in stools Koch always found an organism which looked like a comma. Many times Koch tried to grow this bacterium on gelatin but he failed to do it. Many times he inoculated this bacterium to the experimental animals, but none became ill. As the epidemic of cholera became less in Egypt, Koch went to India to continue his investigations there. In Calcutta Koch often walked along its muddy streets, where the poor people lived. Once Koch saw some muddy water on the ground near a small house. He looked into that water and thought there may be different bacteria to be analyzed. He did it under the microscope and found there the same “commas” which he had observed many times before. In 1884 Koch published his book on cholera. From the intestines of the affected men Koch isolated a small comma-shaped bacterium. He proved that these bacteria spread through drinking water. Later Koch experimented with other infectious agents and could isolate germs of such dangerous epidemic like anthrax. In 1905 Koch got the Nobel Prize for his important scientific discoveries.

Задание 74. Расскажите о работах Роберта Коха. Ответьте на вопросы: 1. Which bacteria were investigated by Koch and named after him? 2. What does occur when bacteria invade the human organism? 3. Which dangerous epidemic followed Koch in Egypt and India? 4. Is cholera possible in animals?