| Date | 1876 |
| Author | Koch |
| Contribution | a. Asserted bacterial causation of anthrax and demonstrated evidence in public. |
| Reference | Norman |
| Notes | He demonstrated publicly the life cycle of the bacillus, and understood the significance of the spore in transmission. The demonstration, in Breslau, had great impact because of enthusiastic reception by Cohn, Cohnheim and others. A landmark in the history of the germ theory. Published in following year, see 1877. For details see Brock biography of Koch. In Bull. Hist. Med. c. 1991, K. C. Carter emphasizes the element of "necessary" causation in this work (essentially the demonstration that the germs are always present in a case of the disease), and downplays the element of "sufficient" causation (essentially the demonstration of transmission by isolation and inoculation of germs). He concedes that "for most medical purposes necessity was more useful than sufficiency", but suggests that sufficiency was the much-sought key to proof of causation. In his view, Koch and Pasteur were, in a sense, complementary in that Koch provided the necessity component and Pasteur the sufficiency component. This is a simplification of Carter's analysis, and the original should be consulted. |
| Category | Causation |
| Pathogen Class | Bacteria |
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