Notes on some German universities : Berlin / by Walter K. Sibley.

  • Sibley, Walter Knowsley, 1862-
Date:
[1890]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on some German universities : Berlin / by Walter K. Sibley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    (1.) A daily four hours' course, which lasts a month. (2.) A place for work during a whole term. The fee for the course is 65^ marks (£3 5s.), and for the use of a place in the laboratory 115^ marks (£5 15s.). Workers have to provide all their reagents and small pieces for manipulation, but are provided with the main collection of bottles and glasses upon paying a deposit, which is returned, with deductions for breakages, at the end of the course. Professor Robert Koch, the Director of the Institute, was born in 1843, and from 1872 to 1880 was a coroner at Wallstein in Bamst. There he commenced his bacteriological investigations, which were published in Ferdinand Cohn's biological memoirs. These were shortly followed by his paper on the Investigation of the Etiology of Wound Infections. In 1880 he was called to Berlin as a member of the Royal Hygienic De- partment. The following papers appeared in the first volume of the Mittheilungen: Investigation of Pathogenic Micro-organisms; The Etiology of Anthrax; On Disinfection; Investigation on Dis- infection by Means of Hot Air (in conjunction with Wolffhiigel); The Convenience of Steam for Disinfecting Purposes (in conjunc- tion with Gaff ky and Loffler). In the second volume appeared: The Etfology of Tuberculosis; Experimental Study on the Artificial Attenuation of the Anthrax Bacillus by Cultivation (in conjunc- tion with Gaffky and Loffler). In 1883 Koch was sent as prin- cipal of the German Cholera Commission to Egypt and India, when he discovered the comma bacillus. Besides these important works he has published many papers in the various medical journals. In 1882 he startled the scientific world by the literally epoch-making discovery of the bacillus of tubercle. In 1885 he was made Professor and Director of the Hygienic Laboratory and Museum in Berlin, where he has continued his investigations ev^r since. He is a man of few words and of quiet retiring manners, and in addition to his great ability as a scientific in- vestigator, he shows much mechanical ingenuity in the invention of apparatus for bacteriological research. A considerable proportion of the work done in the hygienic laboratory proceeds from the assistants. The chief of these, Dr. C. Frankel1 is the author of a complete textbook of bacteriology (Grundriss der Bakterienkun.de) and of numerous special treatises on the various branches of that science. More recently, much has been done by Dr. R. Pfeiffer on the micro-photography of micro- organisms. This gentleman, in conjunction with Dr. Frankel, is bringing out a very complete atlas of photography of micro- organisms, several parts of which have already appeared. Some of the special points in the structure of the micro-photographic apparatus of Drs. Frankel and Pfeiffer are that the microscope can lie in a horizontal position, and the camera with the plate is placed not over, but behind the microscope, and so is placed on a second support in the horizontal prolongation of the same. Placed in front of the microscope, and in the same plane, is a contrivance to regulate the amount of light for the object, and act as a substitute for the mirror, which in the prone position of the instrument is not apDlicable. The three most important parts of the micro-photographic apparatus, namely, the illumination con- trivance, the microscope with its appurtenances, and the camera are all arranged in one plane, and are all in immediate connection and placed in a most convenient manner. Various kinds of arti- ficial light, such as limelight, lamps, magnesium, etc., are em- * Since this account was written, this gentleman has been appointed Professor at Konigsberg.