Health & biology · 1876

Koch's bacteriology

Robert Koch proved anthrax bacteria cause anthrax, and later found the tuberculosis bacillus.

Koch's 1876 anthrax work, his 1882 discovery of the TB bacterium and his postulates for linking microbe to disease founded medical microbiology. Agar plates and staining from his lab let researchers identify pathogen after pathogen.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Germ theory of disease 1861
Microscope 1620

What it led to 5

Rabies vaccine 1885
Mosquito transmits malaria 1897
Salvarsan 1910
Penicillin 1928
DNA carries genes 1944

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Life expectancy in the UK since 1543 Latest: 81.3 years (2023) Source: Our World in Data

Child mortality (under 5) Latest: 3.74 % (2024) Source: Our World in Data

Height of men by birth year, UK Latest: 177 cm (1980) Source: Our World in Data