Significant Events

1892

Dmitri Ivanowski publishes the first evidence of the filterability of a pathogenic agent, the virus of tobacco mosaic disease, launching the field of virology. He passes the agent through candle filters that retain bacteria but isn't sure that he has identified a new region..

When Did Virology Start, ASM News 62, 1996. p.142 [pdf]

Tobacco Mosaic Virus and Its Contributions to Virology, ASM News 65, 1999.p.675

Ivanowski, D. I. 1892. On two diseases of tobacco. Sel'. Khoz. Lesov. 169:108-121; an English translation appears as an appendix to Hughes, S. S. (1972). The origins and development of the concept of the virus in the late nineteenth century. Ph.D. thesis, London University. (13; 25; 115)

William Welch and George Nuttall identify Clostridium perfringens, the organism responsible for causing gangrene.

Welch W. H. and G. Nuttall. 1892. A gas-producing bacillus (b. aerogenes capsulatus, nov.spec.) , capable of rapid development in the blood vessels after death. Johns Hopkins Hosp. Bull. 3: 81-91.

Theobald Smith and F.L. Kilbourne establish that ticks carry Babesia microti, which causes babesiosis in animals and humans. This is the first account of a zoonotic disease and also the foundation of all later work on the animal host and the arthropod vector.

Smith, T. and F. L. Kilbourne. 1893. Investigations into the nature, causation and prevention of Texas or southern cattle fever. Bur. Anim. Ind. Bull. 1: 151-152.

Richard Pfeiffer observes that a heat stable toxic material bound to the membrane of Vibrio Cholerae is released only after the cells are disintegrated. He calls the material endotoxin, to distinguish it from filterable material released by bacteria.

Pfeiffer, R. 1894. Weitere Untersuchungen ueber das Wesen der Choleraimmunitat und ueber specifisch baktericide Processe. Ztschr. f. Hyg. u. Infektionskrankh. xviii: 1-16.

Alexandre Yersin isolates Yersinia (Pasteurella) pestis, the organism that is responsible for bubonic plague. Shibasaburo Kitasato also observes the bacterium in cases of plague

Yersin, A. 1894. La peste bubonique a Hong Kong. C. r. Acad. Sci. 119: 356.

Yersin, A. 1894. La peste bubonique a Hong Kong. Ann. Inst. Pasteur. 8: 662-667.

Kitasato, S. 1894. The bacillus of bubonic plague. Lancet 2: 428-430.

Kitasato, S. 1894. Preliminary notice of the bacillus of bubonic plague. Practitioner 53: 311.

Kitasato, S. 1894. Preliminary notice of the bacillus of bubonic plague. U. S. Marine Hosp. Serv. P. 343.

Martinus Beijerinck isolates the first sulfate-reducing bacterium, Spirillum desulfuricans (Desulfovibrio desulfuricans).

Beijerinck, M. 1894. Noty uber dur nacheveis vom protozoen und spirillum in trinkwasser. Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. 15: 10-15

Sergei Winogradsky isolates the first free-living nitrogen-fixing organism, Clostridum pasteurianum.

Winogradsky, S. 1895. Recherches sur l'assimilation de l'azote libre de l'atmosphere par les microbes. Arch. d. Sci. Biol., Institut Imperial de Medicine Experimentale, St. Petersburg, Vol. 4.

David Bruce describes in great detail the Tsetse fly disease (Nagana - means loss of spirits, depression, in Zulu) in Zululand. He also describes the parasite (drawings of tryp and of tsetse) and demonstrates transmission by infected blood or fly bite.

Bruce, D. "Preliminary Report on the Tsetse-Fly Disease, or Nagana, in Zululand." Durban: Bennett & David 1895.

Max Gruber and Herbert Durham extend the 1889 observation of Charrin and Roger to show the agglutination of bacteria by serum is specific. This was recognized as a new disease diagnostic tool.

Gruber, M. and H. E. Durham. 1896. Eine neue Methode zur raschen Erkennung des Choleravibrio und des Typhusbacillus. Munchen. Med. Wchnschr. xliii: 285-286.

Christan Eijkman, while searching for an infectious agent, he discovers that beriberi is the result of a vitamin deficiency. He is awarded the Nobel Prize in 1929.

1929 Nobel Prize

Christan Eijkman: Early Nobel Winner for Beriberi Research ASM News 64, 1998. p.688

Paul Ehrlich proposes his "side-chain" theory of immunity and develops standards for toxin and antitoxin.

Ehrlich, P. 1897. Zur Kenntniss der Antitoxinwirkung. Fortschr. d. Med. xv: 41.

Edward Buchner helps launch the field of enzymology by publishing the first evidence of a cell-free fermentation process using extracts isolated from yeast. This discovery refutes Pasteur's claim that fermentation requires the repsence of live cells. Buchner is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1907

1907 Nobel Prize

Buchner, E. 1897. Alkoholische Gahrung ohne Hefezellen. Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft, 30: 117-124. In Milestones in Microbiology: 1556 to 1940, translated and edited by Thomas D. Brock, ASM Press. 1998, p65 [pdf]

Waldemar Haffkine produces immunity against the plague with killed organisms.

Waldemar Haffkine: Pioneer of Cholera Vaccine, ASM News 53, 1987. p.366 [pdf] Haffkine, W. 1897. Remarks on the plague prophylactic fluid. Brit. Med. J. 1: 461.

Almwroth Wright and David Sample develop an effective vaccine with killed cells of Salmonella typhi to prevent typhoid fever.

Wright, A. E. and D. Sample. 1897. Remarks on vaccination against typhoid fever. British Medical Journal. I: 256-259.

Friedrich Loeffler and Paul Frosch prove that foot-and-mouth disease in livestock is caused by organisms tiny enough to pass through bacteriological filters and too small to be seen through a light microscope.

Friedrich Loeffler and His History of Bacteriology, ASM News 48 1982, p.297 [pdf] Loeffler, F. and P. Frosch. 1898. Berichte der Kommission zur Erforschung der Maul-und Klauenseuche bei dem Institut fur Infektionskrankheiten. Part I, 23: 371-391.In Milestones in Microbiology: 1556 to 1940, translated and edited by Thomas D. Brock, ASM Press. 1998, p149  [pdf]

Jules Bordet discovers that hemolytic sera acts on foreign blood in a manner similar to the action of antimicrobic sera on microbes by precipitating the material from solution. He shows there are two factors, a heat-labile substance found in normal blood and a bacteriocidal material present in the blood of immunized animals.Bordet is awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1919

1919 Nobel Prize

Bordet, J. 1898. Sur l'agglutination et la dissolution des globules rouges par le serum d'animaux injectes de sang defibrine. Ann. De l'Inst. Pasteur. xii: 688-695.

B. R. Schenck presents the first unequivocal case of sporotrichosis and includes a description of the organism that was first isolated from the patient. This organism was later named Sporotrichum schenckii.

Schenk, B. R. 1898. On refractory subcutaneous abscesses caused by a fungus possibly related to the sporotricha. Johns Hopkins Hosp. Bull. 9: 286-290.

Ronald Ross shows that the malarial parasite undergoes a cycle of development in mosquitoes and that the disease is transmitted by the bite of female mosquitoes. Ross was awarded the Noble Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1902

1902 Nobel Prize

Ross, R. 1899. Mosquitoes and malaria. Brit. Med. J., 432-433.

Martinus Beijerinck recognizes "soluble" living microbes, a term he applies to the discovery of tobacco mosaic virus. A filtrate free of bacteria retains ability to cause disease in plants even after repeated dilutions.In 1897 he had pressed the juice from tobacco leaves infected with tobacco mosaic disease, which gave the leaves a mottled appearance.

Martinus Beijerinck (1851-1931), ASM News 62, 1996. p.539 [pdf]

Beijerinck, M. 1899. Ueber ein Contagium vivum fluidum als Ursache der Fleckenkrankheit der Tabaksblatter. Centralblatt fur bacteriologie und Parasirenkunde, Part II, 5: 27-33. In Milestones in Microbiology: 1556 to 1940, translated and edited by Thomas D. Brock, ASM Press. 1998, p153 [pdf]

The organizing meeting of the Society of American Bacteriologists is held at Yale, December 28, 1899. The Society is the first independent organization devoted to the promotion and service of bacteriology in the United States. It later becomes the American Society for Microbiology.

There was no formal published paper but see: Conn, H.J. 1948. Professor Herbert William Conn and the founding of the American Society of American Bacteriologists. Bact. Reviews. 12: 275-296.

Abstracts of the first meeting were published in SCIENCE N.S. Vol. XI, No. 273: 455-463, 1900

A Century of Society Meetings, ASM News 65, 1999. p.296

Society Founded by "Lost Souls" Among Naturalists, ASM News, 65 1999.p.266

Based on work of Walter Reed, it is demonstrated that Yellow Fever is caused by a filterable virus transmitted by mosquitoes. The agent is similar to that reported in 1898 by Loffler and Frosch for foot and mouth disease of cattle. This is the first report of a viral agent known to cause human disease. Based on the findings of the Yellow Fever Commission the mosquito was eradicated.

No account was published immediately, but the papers of the Yellow Fever Commission were published in 1911.

Reed, W. 1911. Papers by various authors of the Yellow Fever Commission. Sen. Doc. 822. Washington, D. C.

W. Ophuls and H. C. Moffitt correctly identify the etiologic agent of coccidioidomycosis, Coccidiodes immitis, as a mold. This was formerly described as a protozoan.

Ophuls, W. and H. Moffitt. 1900. A new pathogenic mould. Philadelphia Med. J. 5: 1471-1472.

Jules Bordet and Octave Gengou develop the complement fixation test. They show that any antigen-antibody reaction leads to the binding of complement to the target antigen.

Bordet, J. and O. Gengou. 1901. Sur l'existencede substances sensibilisatrices dans la plupart des serums antimicrobiens. Ann. De l'Inst. Pasteur. xv: 289-303.

E. Wildiers publishes the first description of a microbial growth factor, opening the field of vitamin research. He finds that a water soluble extract of yeast has a compund that is required for the growth of yeast. The material is later found to be a B vitamin.

Wildiers, E. 1901. A new substance indispensable to the development of yeast. La Cellule. 18: 313-332. In Milestones in Microbiology: 1556 to 1940, translated and edited by Thomas D. Brock, ASM Press. 1998, p240 [pdf]