Koch, ROBERT

Koch, ROBERT, an eminent bacteriologist, was born at Klausthal, in the Harz, 11th December 1843, studied at Göttingen, and practised medicine at Hanover and elsewhere. His investigations in connection with wounds, septicæmia, and splenic fever gained him a seat on the imperial board of health in 1880; and his further researches in microscopy and bacteriology led to his discovery in 1882 of the Bacillus tuberculosis. In 1883 he was made a privy-councillor, and appointed leader of the German expedition sent to Egypt and India in quest of the cholera germ (see BACTERIA, fig. 5; also CHOLERA). In 1885 he was appointed professor at Berlin, and in 1891 director of the new institute for infectious diseases. He made valuable investigations on rinderpest in South Africa, leading to a method of prophylactory inoculation; and in 1898 he began a two years' series of investigations on malarial fever in Italy, Greece, East Africa, India, and New Guinea. For Koch's postulates, see GERM; and for his tuberculin, see TUBERCLE, p. 317. He has written on splenic fever (1876 and 1882), on wound poison (1878), and other subjects.