This year, 1982, is the centenary of the discovery of tubercle bacilli by Robert Koch. Tuberculosis was highly prevalent in European countries by that time the mortality rate from tuberculosis was approximately 300 per 100,000 in Germany, and the people were afraid of tuberculosis. Koch’s discovery was indeed a great scientific achievement as the causing agent of such a dreadful disease was first discovered.
His work was perfect:
1) he discovered the bacilli in tuberculous lesions and such bacilli were not discovered in lesions of other diseases,
2) he could succeed to culture the bacilli successively,
3) he could produce tuberculosis in animals inoculated with the cultured bacilli, and 4) he discovered the same bacilli in tuberculous lesions of animals.
He was honored in 1905 the Nobel Prize for this excellent work. His work was no doubt an excellent original research, but we have to recognize that several advances in related science supported the discovery of tubercle bacilli by R. Koch. Among them, we knave to point out the followings particularly:
1) the use of condenser and oil immersion by Abbe which improved markedly the resolution power of microscope, and
2) advances in dye industry in Germany which made possible the staining of bacilli easier.
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