KOCH, ROBERT. 1843-1910.


"Zur Untersuchung von pathogenen Organismen." Offprint from: Mittheilungen des Kaiserlichen Gesundheits-Amtes. Berlin: Norddeutsche Buchdruckerei und Verlagsanstalt, 1881. Large 8vo (300 x 220 mm). Caption title. 14 collotype plates, each with 6 microphotographic images. Original linen-backed printed gray boards. Some light wear to edges, light staining and darkening. Hinges cracked, becoming loose in binding. Provenance: Emil Ponfick (1844-1913) German pathologist, assistant to Rudolf Virchow (presentation inscription by the author: "Herrn Professor Dr. Ponfick, Hochachtungsvoll, Der Verf."); Logan Clendening (bookplate). FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, RARE OFFPRINT ISSUE, of Koch's continued research on methods of studying, conserving and photographing bacteria. The work "long remained the basic instructional manual for bacteriological laboratories" (DSB). Koch describes his methods for growing bacterial cultures in gelatin solutions, for "dry-fixing thin films of bacteria on glass slides, for staining them with aniline dyes, and for recording their structure by micro-photography" (DSB). Koch's "application of bacteriology to medicine can be said to have provided the first scientific approach to the control of infectious disease" (Grolier Medicine). Emil Ponfick "recognized the positive role of actinomyces in human actinomycosis; he established the identity of the human and animal forms of the disease" (Garrison-Morton 5512). Garrison-Morton 2495.1 (journal issue); see Grolier, Medicine 80 (journal issue); Norman 1230.