![[Americana.]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg2.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2006-09%252F22%252F7332891-4-1.JPG%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
Lot 43
KOCH, ROBERT. 1843-1910. Autograph Letter Signed ("R. Koch")
21 September 2015, 13:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$2,375 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our History of Science & Technology specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Client Services (San Francisco)
Client Services (New York)
Client Services (Los Angeles)
KOCH, ROBERT. 1843-1910.
Autograph Letter Signed ("R. Koch") 2 1/2 pp recto and verso, 8vo (conjoined leaves), Berlin, December 4, 1900, on stationery of The Royal Institute for Infectious Diseases, large tear from second leaf affecting a portion of text, some tape repair and a small hole to first leaf.
WITH: Cabinet card woodburytype portrait of Robert Koch, light spotting to mount.
RARE ROBERT KOCH LETTER FROM HIS MICROBE-HUNTING HEYDAY. In the present letter Koch excuses himself from a lecture invitation on the grounds that he is 1) too busy catching up after his return (from the tropics), 2) that he was been away too long from the society to know the group, and 3) that he will still be engaged in malaria research at that date. "The pace of travel and discovery was frenetic. After having spent only nine months in Germany over a period of four years Koch returned to Berlin in October 1900. By that time, Pasteur, Koch and their disciple microbe hunters, seeking salvation for humankind and perhaps a little glory for themselves, had in the space of just over two decades identified 21 germs that cause disease. 'As soon as the right method was found, discoveries came as easily as ripe apples from a tree,' Koch said. And it was Robert Koch who had developed those methods." (Persson Smallpox, Syphilis and Salvation, 2010, p 90).
WITH: Cabinet card woodburytype portrait of Robert Koch, light spotting to mount.
RARE ROBERT KOCH LETTER FROM HIS MICROBE-HUNTING HEYDAY. In the present letter Koch excuses himself from a lecture invitation on the grounds that he is 1) too busy catching up after his return (from the tropics), 2) that he was been away too long from the society to know the group, and 3) that he will still be engaged in malaria research at that date. "The pace of travel and discovery was frenetic. After having spent only nine months in Germany over a period of four years Koch returned to Berlin in October 1900. By that time, Pasteur, Koch and their disciple microbe hunters, seeking salvation for humankind and perhaps a little glory for themselves, had in the space of just over two decades identified 21 germs that cause disease. 'As soon as the right method was found, discoveries came as easily as ripe apples from a tree,' Koch said. And it was Robert Koch who had developed those methods." (Persson Smallpox, Syphilis and Salvation, 2010, p 90).