German medical scientist (1843-1910) regarded as the father of bacteriology. He isolated the tuberculosis bacillus and the anthrax virus. He received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1905. ALS in German, signed “R. Koch,” one page, 4.5 x 7.25, November 29, 1890. Letter to a “highly esteemed colleague.” In full (translated): “The shipment for Dr. Billings in Washington left last week, because it is very important to me that he receive it before other shipments also intended for America. In the press of all the countless tasks that now come storming in on me I neglected to inform you and therefore ask your pardon.” In fine condition, with light creases along the central horizontal fold.
The physician referenced in this correspondence, Deputy Surgeon General John Shaw Billings, was a key figure in American medicine for more than 50 years in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and built upon Koch’s discoveries in researching tuberculosis. After Koch isolated an extract in the disease-causing bacteria as a potential remedy for tuberculosis in 1890, Billings obtained a sample for use in clinical trials at Johns Hopkins University. Undoubtedly, it was this very research to which Koch here makes reference.
Interestingly, eight years after his 1882 identification of the bacteria that causes tuberculosis, Koch still found himself besieged by questions from members of the press—a fact that precluded the scientist from responding to colleagues in a timely matter and forcing him to beg for pardon from his esteemed associates. RRAuction COA.
