The interview with Robert Koch held by Huseyin Hulki and the Ottoman delegation on tuberculin therapy

Abstract

Robert Koch (1843-1910), who was one of the significant representatives of the golden age of microbiology, claimed to have discovered the tuberculin/vaccine therapy in 1890. During that era, the Ottoman Empire closely followed the important developments in the field of microbiology. For this reason, it was decided that a delegation should have been sent to Germany to observe the lecture "On Bacteriological Research" to be delivered by Koch on August 3, 1890 during the 10th International Congress of Medicine to be held in Berlin. The delegation travelled to Germany and carried out observations and met Koch in the meanwhile. Among the delegation sent to Berlin there was also Dr. Huseyin Hulki Bey, who graduated from the Military School of Medicine in 1885, and could speak French, Greek, Farsi and Arabic. One of the young professors of the medical school, Dr. H. Hulki gathered his memories on the trip to Berlin in a book after his return. In his book published under the title Berlin Memories (1892), he related the interview they held with Koch, the various medical centres they visited in Berlin, and the physicians they met there.