Letter from SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD to CAROLINE CRANE MARSH, dated February 7, 1884.
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Dear Mrs. Marsh
Dr. Kidder sends me the following memorandum:
The Bacill Tuberosus was first announced by Koch on the 10th April, 1882. -- as stated in my note. But prior thereto
several different forms of bacteria had been noticed in tuberculosis specimens to
which the disease had been attributed, erroneously, as now appears. Klebs, as well as Pasteur, had supposed himself to
have made the discovery of the essential element in tuberculosis; & it is
probably to one of these earlier, mistaken, announcements
that Mr. Marsh referred. It is
quite safe to rely upon the date given in my note. Pasteur's more important
discoveries relate to [...] of silk worms, the anthrax of Chicken Cholera and the
bacillus of .
Yours truly,S. F. BairdMrs. George P. Marsh.ScarsdaleWestchester Co.N.Y
References in this letter:
Jerome Henry Kidder (1842-1889) was a surgeon and natural historian.
The German bacteriologist Robert Koch (1843-1910), identified the bacterial cause of many infectious diseases.
Edwin Klebs (1834-1913) was a German born American pathologist who worked on the cause of infectious diseases.
The great French chemist, Louis Pasteur (1829-1895) identified the pathogens involved in virulent and contagious diseases.