Redmond Barry Fellow 2016

Tuberculosis, tuberculin and the Melbourne medical scene in the 1890s sought to re-create the story of tuberculin in Melbourne. Tuberculosis was one of the great scourges of the industrialised world in the late nineteenth century. Therefore, when the world famous German scientist, Robert Koch, announced in 1890 that he had produced a cure (in the form of a substance called ‘tuberculin), it created a world-wide sensation. So rare were remedies for any diseases, Australian medical scientists at the Melbourne Medical School rushed to obtain drug samples and the information to produce the drug at home. Among them were the Dean Professor Harry Brookes Allen; the lecturer in therapeutics and important public figure, Dr John Springthorpe; and the ophthalmologist and controversial medical politician (later Chancellor of the University), James Barrett. Yet the new “germ theory” of disease had been a controversial topic in Melbourne medical circles. How did the failure of tuberculin to live up to its promise affect the perception of germ theory in the public and medical profession?