1890 – Koch discovered tuberculin

In 1890, Koch returned to his work on tuberculosis. He sought to arrest the disease by means of a preparation, which he called tuberculin, made from cultures of tubercle bacilli. He made two preparations of this kind called the old and the new tuberculin respectively, and his first communication on the old tuberculin aroused considerable…

1877 – Koch’s Postulates

Known for his work on tuberculosis, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize.
Established Koch’s Postulates that provide the basis for establishing if an organism is the cause of a disease
Koch pioneered the use of microbiologic techniques still used today –agar growth media, Petri dishes; bacterial purification and staining techniques.

1868 – Wilhelm Griesinger showed that hookworm disease was caused by the worm Ancylostoma Duodenale

In the early 1850s Griesinger went to Egypt to head the medical school and the health commission in Cairo, and became the personal physician to Egyptian viceroy Abbas 1. In Egypt, Griesinger and German physician Theodor Bilharz found hookworms during autopsies and linked them to local endemic occurrences of “Egyptian chlorosis” (iron deficiency anemia), which…

1865 – Max Von Pettenkofer – professor of the first Institute of Hygiene, at the University of Munich

Pettenkofer was a major figure in the development of the academic stdy of public hygiene and sanitary reform in the nineteenth centur. In 1865, Pettenkofer was made ordinary professor of hygiene and elected university rector at Munich. During an audience with the young King Ludwig II, Pettenkofer promoted hygiene so effectively that chairs were created…

1779 – Johann Peter Frank – public hygiene

The most important European figure in the German public health movement was Johann Peter Frank (1745-1821), who established the concept of “medical police” with his publication of The System of Medical Police in 1779. Frank’s idea of “medical police” meant that government medical policy should be implemented through enforced regulations. He presented medical policing as…

1527 – First pumps for water supply

There was practicaly no improvment in water supply systems in midle ages. In Germany, water works were constructed in 1412 and pumps were introduces in 1527 in Hanover. Franciscan monk constructed aqueduct of Zempola in Mexico in the middle of 16th century. In 1582, a pump was erected on the Old London bridge for the…

1496 – Bathing prohibited at Nuremberg

For some strange reason the myth continues that people in the Renaissance were dirty, slovenly people killed off by plagues because they never bathed. Nothing could be further from the truth in the Germanic part of the Holy Roman Empire, especially in the Imperial City of Nuremberg, were personal cleanliness was highly prized. As a…