Chapter 8 : Studies on Wound Infections: the Later Wollstein Years

Abstract:

Throughout the period after Robert Koch's initial success with anthrax, his self-confidence increased enormously. All his spare time was now occupied with research, and he continued to show new and innovative approaches. Koch also used some o f the spleen o f the dead mouse to inoculate rabbits, which died 24 hours after inoculation. Considering Koch's later detractors, and the tremendous criticisms that he suffered, we can see here, in a nutshell, the essence of Koch's personality. Koch's work on anthrax was strongly based on the idea that a given disease was caused by a single organism. Microscopy o f wound infections was carried out by the German Edwin Klebs independently of Davaine. Building on the animal work of Davaine and the microscopic work of Klebs, Koch carried out extensive investigations at Wollstein and developed the theory that each septic condition was due to a different organism. Koch studied a wide variety of traumatic infective diseases, including tissue gangrene in mice, spreading abscess in rabbits, pyemia in rabbits, septicemia in rabbits, and erysipelas in rabbits. But the connection of Koch's work on sepsis to humans was lacking. Certainly Koch would have worked with humans if he had been in a medical center, but isolated in Wollstein, he lacked the necessary clinical material.