The bacteriology of diphtheria, including sections on the history, epidemiology and pathology of the disease, the mortality caused by it, the toxins and antitoxins and the serum disease / by F. Loeffler et al. Edited by G.H.F. Nuttall and G.S. Graham-Smith.

  • Loeffler, Friedrich August Johannes, 1852-
Date:
1908
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The bacteriology of diphtheria, including sections on the history, epidemiology and pathology of the disease, the mortality caused by it, the toxins and antitoxins and the serum disease / by F. Loeffler et al. Edited by G.H.F. Nuttall and G.S. Graham-Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    ROUX. Pierre Paul Emile Roux^ was born 17th December 1853 at Confolens (Charente). He commenced to study medicine at Clermont- Ferrand, where he worked at chemistry under Duclaux (1872). At the conclusion of his medical studies in 1878 he entered Pasteur's labor- atory at the Ecole Normale and from that time till the death of Pasteur his scientific career was intimately associated with that of his renowned colleague. He collaborated with Pasteur in his researches upon the etiology of anthrax, the attenuation of various bacteria, and the use of attenuated cultures in immunisation (1876—1881). He assisted Pasteur in his studies upon rabies which led to the classical preventive treatment to that malady. His M.D. Thesis dealt with discoveries relating to rabies. Since the foundation of the Pasteur Institute in 1888 he has devoted himself to technical microbiology, and the course which he started in that subject still continues. During 1887—1890 he published many papers either alone or in conjunction with Nocard, Chamberland and Yersin, the most important of which dealt with the asporogenic anthrax bacillus, the cultivation of the tubercle bacillus upon glycer- inated agar, the immunisation against anthrax and the vibrio septique, and the diphtheria bacillus and its toxins. In collaboration with L. Martin he prepared an antidiphthei'ial serum which gave such striking results in practice that doubt could no longer be entertained in regard to the value of the remedy. His report of the investigations conducted at the Children's Hospital in Paris was read before the International Congress of Hygiene and Demography at Budapest in 1894, where it created the greatest interest, and impressed all with its importance. The impression which it produced was in no small measure due to the lucid and convincing manner in which the report was presented by Roux. A fund was soon established by public subscription which enabled Roux to establish a special department for the preparation of curative sera. Upon the death of Pasteur he became Subdii'ector of the Pasteur Institute, and took Pasteur's place in the Academie de Medecine. Since that time he has published important papers in collaboration with Metchnikoff and Salimbeni on cholera toxins and antitoxins (1896), with Borrel on the treatment of tetanus by intracerebral injections (1898) and with Nocard on pleuro-pneumonia in cattle (1899). His latest researches conducted in collaboration with Metchnikoff deal with experimental syphilis. In 1899 he was elected a member of the Academie de Sciences, and in 1904 he became Director of the Pasteur Institute upon the death of Duclaux. 1 We are much indebted to Dr Mesnil of the Pasteur Institute for the data upon which this biographical notice is based. G. H. F. N. G. S. G.-S.