Anthrax Used by Koch and Pasteur to Prove Germ Theory of Disease
in 19th C. Washington Times 14oct01 PALM BEACH, FL — Anthrax is
not only one of the oldest diseases, but its causative agent was
the first one in history to be definitively isolated, reproduced
and linked to the disease that affects both livestock and
humans. Robert Koch & Louis Pasteur Two 19th-century scientists,
Robert Koch (1843-1910), a German, and France's Louis Pasteur
(1822-1895), used anthrax to prove the germ theory of disease —
that is, the belief that micro-organisms caused maladies. To be
sure, they were not the first to suggest a germ theory. As far
back as 1721 in Boston, the Rev. Cotton Mather inoculated 240
persons with smallpox fluid to successfully ward off the disease
for virtually all the recipients. Nor were Koch and Pasteur
alone in dealing with the anthrax bacteria. Other scientists
before them had detected rod-shaped organisms in the bodies of
animals dying from anthrax, as well as in soil and water samples
from farms. B