Fanny and Hesse Early Contributors to Microbiology
Features
Walther and Angelina Hesse-Early Contributors to Bacteriology
In an unassuming way,. they moved agar from the kitchen to the lab, revolutionizing bacteriology
WOLFGANG HESSE T RANSLATED BY D IETER H. M. GR~SCHEL
Walther Hesse was a well-known community health physician in the Kingdom of Saxony, a student of Max von Pettenkofer, the father of hygiene, and of Robert Koch, the father of medical microbiology. His American wife, Fanny Angelina, introduced agar-agar to the new science of microbiology.
The Hesse Family
Walther Hesse, a descendent of a Saxon family from Bischofswerda, was born on 27 December 1846 as the third of 12 children of Friedrich Wilhelm Hesse, the Bezirksarzt, or county physician, of Zittau. Friedrich Wilhelm was the first university-educated physician in the family and had received his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Leipzig in 1842. Two of his forefathers were surgeons, one a military surgeon during the Napoleonic wars and the other a graduate of the Surgico-Medical Academy of Dresden. Hesse’s mother came from a cloth-weaving family that owned several looms. Two of the 12 children died in infancy; five sons and five daughters survived. Four of the sons became physicians, and the daughters were sent to a teacher’s college to make them independent. Walther’s older brother Richard became a successful practicing physician in Brooklyn, N.Y. Walther’s younger brother, Friedrich Louis, went to America on a visit, became very impressed by the
Wolfgang Hesse, a retired internist from Karlsruhe, Germany, wrote this biography of his grandparents. Dieter Grlischel, a professor of pathology and internal medicine at the Department ofPathology, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, edited and translated the work. VOL. 58, NO. 8, 1992
advanced state of U.S. dentistry, and stayed for 3 years of advanced training. He founded the first university chair of dentistry in Germany, at Leipzig. Brother Georg
Walther and Angelina Hesse-Early Contributors to Bacteriology
In an unassuming way,. they moved agar from the kitchen to the lab, revolutionizing bacteriology
WOLFGANG HESSE T RANSLATED BY D IETER H. M. GR~SCHEL
Walther Hesse was a well-known community health physician in the Kingdom of Saxony, a student of Max von Pettenkofer, the father of hygiene, and of Robert Koch, the father of medical microbiology. His American wife, Fanny Angelina, introduced agar-agar to the new science of microbiology.
The Hesse Family
Walther Hesse, a descendent of a Saxon family from Bischofswerda, was born on 27 December 1846 as the third of 12 children of Friedrich Wilhelm Hesse, the Bezirksarzt, or county physician, of Zittau. Friedrich Wilhelm was the first university-educated physician in the family and had received his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Leipzig in 1842. Two of his forefathers were surgeons, one a military surgeon during the Napoleonic wars and the other a graduate of the Surgico-Medical Academy of Dresden. Hesse’s mother came from a cloth-weaving family that owned several looms. Two of the 12 children died in infancy; five sons and five daughters survived. Four of the sons became physicians, and the daughters were sent to a teacher’s college to make them independent. Walther’s older brother Richard became a successful practicing physician in Brooklyn, N.Y. Walther’s younger brother, Friedrich Louis, went to America on a visit, became very impressed by the
Wolfgang Hesse, a retired internist from Karlsruhe, Germany, wrote this biography of his grandparents. Dieter Grlischel, a professor of pathology and internal medicine at the Department ofPathology, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, edited and translated the work. VOL. 58, NO. 8, 1992
advanced state of U.S. dentistry, and stayed for 3 years of advanced training. He founded the first university chair of dentistry in Germany, at Leipzig. Brother Georg