Robert Koch

   Robert Koch (1843-1910) was a famous German physician and one of the greatest bacteriologists ever known. He discovered the germ which causes TUBERCULOSIS of the lungs. While on an official mission to Egypt and India, he also isolated the bacterium which causes Asiatic cholera. Koch spent eighteen months investigating SLEEPING SICKNESS among the people of East Africa and traveled to India as head of a commission to study bubonic plague. His investigations of the origin and treatment of MALARIA took him all over the world.
   In addition to these, Koch isolated the bacillus of anthrax, an infectious and generally fatal disease among cattle, and developed a method of inoculation to prevent the disease. He was internationally recognized as a pioneer in new methods of bacteriological research, primarily for isolating individual species.
   Born in Klausthal, Hannover, Germany, this great man studied medicine at the University of Gottingen. When he was forty-two years old, he became a professor of medicine at the University of Berlin. The recipient of many awards and honors, he won the NOBEL PRIZE for medicine in 1905.