Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch 1843-1910 In 1883 Koch

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch 1843-1910

In 1883 Koch went to Egypt to study cholera. At that time there was а widespread epidemic of cholera in Egypt. Nobody knew the origin of this disease, there were not any protective measures against it. The disease spread very rapidly from one place to another and thousands of healthy people died. But sometimes some people who were in а constant contact with the diseased person did not catch cholera.

As soon as Koch came to Alexandria he and his two assistants Gaffcky and Fisher began their investigations. . In the blood, kidneys, spleen, liver and lungs of the people who died of cholera Koch found many microorganisms but all of them were not the agents of cholera. However in the walls of the intestines and in stools Koch always found а microorganism which looked like а comma.

Many times Koch tried to grow this bacterium on gelatin but he failed to do it. Many times Koch inoculated this bacterium to the experimental animals, but none became ill with cholera. As the epidemic of cholera became less in Egypt, Koch went to India to continue his Investigations there. In Calcutta Koch often walked along its muddy streets, where the poor lived. Once Koch saw some muddy water on the ground near а small house.

Koch looked into that water and he thought he saw there those «commas». Не took some of this water, analyzed it under the microscope many times and found there the same bacteria which he had so many times revealed in the people with cholera. Koch also established that animals could not catch this disease. The source of the disease was the water, which people drank.

Vibrio cholerae