Robert Koch was a German Scientist. He used Pasteur’s findings of the late 1860’s to begin his own study into the cause of disease.
Robert Koch
Koch had the advantage of being a Doctor, so he could apply medical knowledge to his experimentation. By 1875 he had successfully identified the microbe that caused Anthrax. A link was now made between germs and diseases, which allowed for Jenner‘s earlier work to now be more fully understood and used. (Pasteur found the vaccine for Anthrax in 1881).
Koch used this new knowledge to begin a study of the causes of blood poisoning, or septicemia. He knew that a Microbe must be responsible for causing the spread of the disease, but at first couldn’t see the microbe, even with the aid of the most powerful microscopes. Industrialisation however led to the development of dyes that could be used to stain microbes. Koch created a liquid that contained just one germ, and dyed it. Through testing on mice he could show that this specific microbe, or germ, was responsible for the spread of the disease. (Koch photographed the spread of the dye, the start of the disease and it’s spread to prove his theory).
Koch later developed a solid culture to grow germs on. This meant that germ theory could be done much more reliably than with liquid cultures such as those by Pasteur.
Koch’s work led him to discover the germs that caused tuberculosis and cholera.
Public Health in the Industrial Revolution
Impact of new machines – Workhouses in Bradford and Leeds – Typhoid outbreaks 1830 – 1836 – Cholera, 1831 Outbreak – Poor Law Commission [1834, Report 1837] – Poor Law Commission 1835 – Bradford Woolcombers Report, 1837 – Report on the conditions of workers in Leeds, 1842 – Report on the sanitary Condition of the Labouring Classes, Chadwick 1842 – Health of Towns Association, 1844 – Health in Bradford in the mid 1840’s – Health in Manchester, 1844 – Public Health Act, 1848 – Working Conditions in Bradford, 1850 – Census figures: UK Population statistics 1831 – 1851 – John Snow’s work on Cholera, 1854 – Nightingale School of Nursing – Bradford Sewage Works, 1862 – Louis Pasteur: Germ Theory, 1865 – Second Reform Act [External] – Royal Sanitary Commission, 1869 – The Public Health Act, 1872 [External] – Public Health Act, 1875 [External] – Artizans and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvement Act, 1875 [External] – Tuberculosis Germ identified by Robert Koch, 1882 – Cholera Germ identified, 1883 – Health in Bradford, Margaret McMillan’s Report, 1890 – Report into the health of Children in Bradford, 1907 – Timeline of Public Health over time – Medicine and Treatments c1350-2018 – Themes in Medical History
Medicine Through time
Resources for Medicine Through Time – Prehistoric Medicine – Ancient Egyptian Medicine – Ancient Greek Medicine – Medicine in the Roman Empire – Medieval Medicine – Renaissance Medicine – Public Health in the Industrial Revolution – Fight against infectious disease – Modern Medicine