1877 | Medicine
Medicine
German district surgeon (Heinrich Hermann) Robert Koch, 33, of Wollstein demonstrates a technique for fixing and straining bacteria. Appointed 4 years ago to a position as district medical examiner in Poland, Koch found that anthrax was endemic and last year obtained a pure culture of the anthrax bacillus by using the eye of an ox as a sterile medium for culturing the bacillus (see Davaine, 1863); he will confirm Louis Pasteur's suggestion that every disease produced by microorganisms is produced by a specific bacillus (see tuberculosis bacillus, 1882).
English researchers A. Downes and T. P. Blunt discover the germicidal qualities of ultraviolet rays. Their findings will lead to new techniques for sterilization.
Question of Rest for Women During Menstruation by English-born physician Mary Jacobi (née Mary Corinna Putnam), 35, disputes the notion that women must leave off their pursuit of everyday activities during their menstrual periods. The first woman to receive a degree from New York City's College of Pharmacy at a time when no regular U.S. medical school would accept women, Jacobi entered the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, completed her studies at the Ecole de Médécine in Paris, where she was the first woman student.
James Paget, now 63, describes the chronic bone disease osteitis deformans that will be called Paget's disease (see 1835). It will defy a century of effort to unearth its etiology and find a specific therapy.