Laboratory disease
Subtitle: Robert Koch's medical bacteriology
By: Christoph Gradmann ; translated by Elborg Forster.
Contributors: Forster, Elborg, 1931-
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Baltimore
Language: eng
Number of pages: 318
ISBN-13: 9780801893131
Subjects: Koch, Robert, -- 1843-1910; Koch, Robert, -- 1843-1910; Medical bacteriology -- History; Bacteriology -- history -- Germany; History, 19th Century -- Germany; History, 20th Century -- Germany
Work titles: Krankheit im Labor.
Description: "In the nineteenth century, the new field of medical bacteriology identified microorganisms and explained how they spread disease. This book interweaves the history of this discipline and the biography of one of its founders, Nobel Prize-winning German physician Robert Koch (1843-1910)." "Koch contributed to modern medicine by inventing or improving fundamental techniques such as bacterial staining, solid culture media, mass pure cultures, and the use of animal models. His discoveries, which dominated medical science at the turn of the last century, are epitomized in a set of rules named after him. "Koch's Postulates" are still invoked today in attempts to prove the causal involvement of pathogens in infectious diseases." "In a double history, Christoph Gradmann narrates the development of a discipline and the biography of a scientist. Drawing on Koch's extensive laboratory notes, Gradmann details how Koch developed his scientific method and discovered the bacterial causes of anthrax, tuberculosis, and cholera. Koch tried to bring this knowledge to clinical medicine by developing medicines that would specifically target the bacterial pathogens he identified. And Koch's passion for personal travel developed into a career signature, as he became a pioneer in the study of tropical diseases." "A fascinating look into Koch's personality and his experimental work in medical bacteriology, Laboratory Disease reveals both the biographical and the historical roots of our modern understanding of infectious diseases."--Jacket.
Notes: Translation of: Krankheit im Labor : Robert Koch und die medizinische Bakteriologie / Christoph Gradmann. c2005.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Lower fungi and diseases : infectious diseases between botany and pathological anatomy, 1840-1878; title: Tuberculosis and tuberculin : history of a research program; title: Of men and mice : medical bacteriology and experimental therapy, 1890-1908; title: Traveling : Robert Koch's research expeditions as private and scientific undertakings : a perspective.