Robert Koch
Anthrax

Robert Koch is widely known for his work with anthrax, discovering the causative agent of the fatal disease to be Bacillus anthracis. After officially becoming a district physician in Wollstein (today's Wolsztyn), Poland, in 1872, Robert began to delve into the disease called Anthrax. Near Wollstein, anthrax disease was regularly taking the lives of humans and livestock without evidence explaining why. Eventually, in 1876, Koch was able to make an incredible discovery that anthrax was triggered by one singular pathogen. Koch’s discovery of the dormant stage, the anthrax spores, allowed him to successfully unravel the mystery behind the anthrax disease. By gaining a better understanding of this pathogen, he was able to shed light on the bacterium’s remarkable resistance to environmental factors (“Robert Koch – Nobel Lecture” 2018). This groundbreaking achievement marked Koch as the pioneer scientist to discover that a microscopic organism was causing a disease to spread. His findings were especially impressive as they were done in a poorly equipped laboratory in Wollstein.

He published the discovery in a booklet as " Die Ätiologie der Milzbrand-Krankheit, Begründet auf die Entwicklungsgeschichte des Bacillus Anthracis " (The Etiology of Anthrax Disease, Based on the Developmental History of Bacillus Anthracis) in 1876 while working at in Wöllstein. His publication in 1877 on the structure of anthrax bacterium marked the first photography of a bacterium. He discovered the formation of spores in anthrax bacteria, which could remain dormant under specific conditions. However, under optimal conditions, the spores were activated and caused disease. To determine this causative agent, he dry-fixed bacterial cultures onto glass slides, used dyes to stain the cultures, and observed them through a microscope. His work with anthrax is notable in that he was the first to link a specific microorganism with a specific disease, rejecting the idea of spontaneous generation and supporting the germ theory of disease.
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