Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-28

BADENBADEN, May 2s.-Prof Rob-
ert kich. the eminent basteriologist died
here yesterday afternoon Of heart dis
case. He had been in failing health for a
year or more following the exposures to
which he subjected himself while engaged
in scientific research in malarial districts
in German East Africa and elsewhere.
He was in his sixty-seventh year.
DR.. koclis fame will rest chiefly on
his preparation in 1891 of tuberclin as a
remedy for phthsis and kindred affec-
tions. 1t has not fulfilled the high hope
entertained for it. but it received a world
wide announcement as cure for con-
sumption, and the progress made in the
treatment of that disease received dis
tinct impetus from his discoveries.
The study of bacilli had been his spe-
cialty for many years before that AS
early as 1876 he isolated the bacillus Of
anthrax. and in 1852 he demonstrated
the bacillus of tuberculosis. which bears
his name. In 1883 he identified in Egypt
and India the comma bacillus as the
cause of cholera. Reputation won by
these discoveries turned scientific atten-
ton 10 him as the man TO provide de-
stroyer for these ravaGers.
Announcement of TubercuI1n.
He met these expectations in 1890 when
he announced at the meeting Of the Inter
national Medical Congress that he had
found specific for tuberculosis. The
medical profession awaited the production
with some skepticism. but with keen in
terest, and there were demands for it
from all parts of the world soon il
was prepared in the following year. AL
though experience did not fully make
good the discoveries claims, tuberculin
became at once of value as a diagnostic
agent and has so continued.
In recent Years DR.. Koch was at vari-
ance with the majority of those who may
be classed as his followers, because he
persisted that tuberculosis was not the
same disease in a man as in animals and
that transmission from animals to man
was Impossible. The English royal com
mission on tuberculosis in 1904 wholly op-
posed his contention.
Investigations in Africa.
The German government sent him to
South Africa in 1896 and again in 1896; to
study rinderpest. In 1897 he investigated
the causes Of malaria in German E.a st
Africa and returned there in 1906 to study
the sleeping sickness.
He visited the United States in 1908,
when he attended the international tu-
berculosis congress i'm Philadelphia. Hos
pitalIIleS crowded faSt on him IN
various cities that by the time he reach
ed Chicago he became i'll and was forced
to cancel all engagements and place him.
self out OF the reach of further invita-
lions.
Since lSs, he held professorship in
the University of Berlin and after the
tuberculin discovery the German emperor
conferred on him the title of eXcellency.
He became director of the meteorological
Institute, in Berlin. in 1891. In 1905 he
received the Nobel prize for achieve
ments in physiology.
Held Important Posts.
He served many years on the imperial
board of health. as a privy councillor,
as director of the Institute of Hygiene
and, from 1891, honorary professor
and director of the New York Institute
for Infectious Diseases. His writings
were voluminous On his various research
es and he printed several books concern