The age-herald., 1901-08-27

UT. EtODent KOCH IS fol Otiy tAHS AaoSe famous living bacteriologist but was all so the center of one of the worlds great est tragedies.
 Nearly eleven years ago. in the latter half of November, 1890, the word went . round the world like a lightning flash that Berlin scientist had discovered an infaIlible cure for consumption. Up to then pr. Koch had been comparatively unknown outside scientific circles. but in few days he became world famous. From every corner of the eanth con- sumptives rushed to him. Hectic-cheek- ed, big-eyed. emaciated, they poured into Berlin. Men at the last stages of the disease died in railway carriages on their way to him. Stricken souls. barely able to walk yard, had themselves car ried, and Berlin became, for a time, veritable pool of siloam.
 It was pitiful and terrible, and there was no man who would more gladly have stayed the rush than pr. Koch himself. He had not desired this. He had sought his utmost to keep his discoveries from understanding that he had issued a bare account of them.
 In the "Deutsche Medizinische woch- enschrift," that memorable November, he had written:
 It was my intention to complete the research, and to experiment especially upon the application of the remedy in practice and It's production on a large scale, before publishing anything on the subject. But, in spite of all precautions too many accounts have reached the pub lie, and those in an exaggerated and dis torted form, so that 1t seems imperative in order to prevent all false impressions to give at once a review of the position of the subject at the present stage of the inquiry.
 And it was this which precipitated the tragedy. The experiments had not been completed, and 1t was found that the Koch tuberculin which had been expected to banish the disease as effectually as calf lymph has destroyed smallpox, was as yet imperfect. And the pilgrims for health had to go back uncured.
 Every triumph is only made through failures and no man who understands the conditions of modern medical research would blame Dr. Koch for the Berlin tragedy of 1890. He had done his best, and If he had not done all that man hoped. he yet showed the way to great triumphs.
 Forty years ago 1t was the fashion in England to laugh at the bespectacled, short-sighted, plodding German scientists. Today we have learned to take on our hats to them. For the quiet investigator in his laboratory Is the conqueror of the world. Dr. Koch is now in his fifty eighth year, and made his famous an- nouncement when he was only forty seven, but he had done much in bacteri- ology before then. The son of a mining official. he was trained at Gattingen, where he came under the influence of Jacob Henle, who gave him his bent to- ward microscopic Investigation Then he went on to Hamburg as assistant physi- clan at the hospital and in time settled down in a quiet German village. There could have seemed no more hopeless place for scientific progress. The people were rough rustics. and the doctor was so far away from intellectual centers. But 1t was here he won his spurs.
 Living in the country, he grasped the opportunity of mastering the most ter rible rural disease, anthrax in cattle. An thrax is supposed to have been one of the ten plaques of Egypt, and has been in modern times one of the greatest curses of farmers. Some years previous to this pr. Davaine had partly located the bach Jus of anthrax. Koch took up the matter where Davaine left 1t. He localized and subdivided the germ, and was able even to cultivate 1t. The publication of his dis coveries created a great sensation in sci- entihc circles and Koch at once became man of mark among bacteriologists. All THIS MOSQUITO WAS MEASURED. New York Letter in the Pittsburg Dis-
 patch.
 The biggest mosquito that was ever captured was finally landed in Newark, N J.. after an awful struggle People are mortified at Its size, and fear that it is the forerunner of a new brand, far worse and far more deadly than anything that has yet attacked the unfortunates of that vicinity. The mosquito was seen ambling along through the air at about o'clock in the evening. At first 1t was mistaken for chicken hawk. When it finally came down near the ground a dozen men and boys. armed with all kinds of weapons, surrounded it. and 1t was finally dispatch ed Then it was measured Competent persons say that the measurement record ed three inches over all. Its bill was long, CT than a plumber'stin winter time. while It's legs were the size of sparrow's. The ''oldest inhabitant' declares that he never saw the like of 1t before.
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