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.

Never before have we been able to consult a reference text on the school of German bacteriology and the man Koch. This book is a real eye-opener. Its scholarship is brilliant, and the merits of the 'new' history of science as a cultural process are demonstrated to a stupendous standard. -- Flurin Condrau, University of Manchester

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

Reviews
An important resource for researchers on Koch and the German medicine of his times. Choice 2010 For those interested in visualization; in laboratory practices and their epistemological implications; and in the history of bacteriology, microbiology, medicine and biology in general, this is an important book. -- James E. Strick British Journal for the History of Science 2011 For those interested in visualization; in laboratory practices and their epistemological implications; and in the history of bacteriology, microbiology, medicine and biology in general, this is an important book. -- James E. Strick The Journal of BJHS 2011



Book Information
ISBN 9780801893131
Author Christoph Gradmann
Format Hardback
Page Count 328
Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
Weight(grams) 567g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 24mm