18/19: R. Koch

• Before Robert Koch


  They did not know that disease was caused by different microbes or bacteria. He carried out his work at the same time as Pasteur.
• Robert Koch's discovery

  • He began to apply Pasteur’s ideas to human diseases.
  • He created the science of bacteriology.
  • He identified the bacteria which caused anthrax, TB and cholera.
  • 1884: he found cholera in drinking water in India, which proved it was spread in water supplies.
  • This confirmed John Snow's theory of why cholera had spread in London in 1854.
  • Koch also developed a medium for growing bacteria and a way of staining them so that they could be seen more easily.
• Robert Koch laid the foundations for... (after)

  • Doctors began to study disease itself, rather than studying and treating symptoms.
  • He made it easier for other scientists to identify and study bacteria, such as diphtheria and pneumonia, because of his staining technique.
  • In the 1880s and 1890s rapid progress was made in identifying the bacteria that caused disease and in developing vaccines. Governments supported scientific research with money.