Laboratory Disease

Robert Koch's Medical Bacteriology
Erscheinungsjahr 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8018-9313-1
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 328 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 566 g

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gradmann, Christoph

Weitere Mitwirkende

Forster, Elborg

Fachgebiete

• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Public Health, Gesundheitsmanagement, Gesundheitsökonomie, Gesundheitspolitik
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Medizin, Gesundheit: Sachbuch, Ratgeber
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction
2. Lower Fungi and Diseases: Infectious Diseases between Botany and Pathological Anatomy, 1840–1878
3. Tuberculosis and Tuberculin: History of a Research Program
4. Of Men and Mice: Medical Bacteriology and Experimental Therapy, 1890–1908
5. Traveling: Robert Koch's Research Expeditions as Private and Scientific Undertakings
A Perspective
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Forster, Elborg
Elborg Forster's translations for Johns Hopkins include Medieval Marriage by Georges Duby and Illness and Self in Society by Claudine Herzlich and Janine Pierret.

Christoph Gradmann is a professor of the history of medicine at the University of Oslo.