Features

Walther and Angelina Hesse-EarlyContributors to Bacteriology

In an unassuming way,. they moved agar from the kitchen to thelab, revolutionizing bacteriology

WOLFGANG HESSETRANSLATED BY DIETER H. M. GR~SCHEL

Walther Hesse was a well-known communityhealth physician in the Kingdom of Saxony, a studentof Max von Pettenkofer, the father of hygiene, and ofRobert Koch, the father of medical microbiology. HisAmerican wife, Fanny Angelina, introduced agar-agarto the new science of microbiology.

The Hesse Family

Walther Hesse, a descendent of a Saxon familyfrom Bischofswerda, was born on 27 December 1846 asthe third of 12 children of Friedrich Wilhelm Hesse,the Bezirksarzt, or county physician, of Zittau.Friedrich Wilhelm was the first university-educatedphysician in the family and had received his doctor ofmedicine degree from the University of Leipzig in1842. Two of his forefathers were surgeons, one amilitary surgeon during the Napoleonic wars and theother a graduate of the Surgico-Medical Academy ofDresden. Hesses mother came from a cloth-weavingfamily that owned several looms. Two of the 12 chil-dren died in infancy; five sons and five daughterssurvived. Four of the sons became physicians, and thedaughters were sent to a teachers college to makethem independent. Walthers older brother Richardbecame a successful practicing physician in Brooklyn,N.Y. Walthers younger brother, Friedrich Louis, wentto 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 internalmedicine at the Department ofPathology, University ofVirginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, editedand translated the work.

VOL. 58, NO. 8, 1992

advanced state of U.S. dentistry, and stayed for 3 yearsof advanced training. He founded the first universitychair of dentistry in Germany, at Leipzig. BrotherGeorg became a surgeon and the director of a privatesurgical hospital in Dresden.

Walther received his secondary education in Dres-den, where he attended the famous Kreuzschule, aGymnasium (high school) whose choir ,was founded in1216. In 1866 he began the study of medicine at theUniversity of Leipzig and received his doctorate inMarch 1870 after having publicly defended his thesis

on the reaction of the epithelium to acute catarrh ofthe intestinal tract. In 1867, he volunteered for al-year reserve-officer course with the army. As aFeldassistenzarzt (second lieutenant of the medicalcorps) in the Saxon army, he participated in theFrance-Prussian War from 1870 to 1871 and in thebattles of Gravelotte and St. Privat.

Right after the war, at age 25, Walther wrote apaper on the situation of military physicians thataddressed the combatant status of front troop surgeonsand proposed a new position for them. He also criti-cized the food and water supply system, the shortage ofmedical personnel, and the absence. of transport andfield stations for the wounded and offered some adviceabout effective first aid. This paper-never pub-lished-is the first of his postgraduate professionalmanuscripts. It not only demonstratesthe physician as a socially engaged al

.histrui

concept of.st but also

signals the direction of his future professional life.The remainder of his active military service (until

1873) was spent as a staff physician -of the privateinsane asylum run by Dr. Lehmann in Pirna nearDresden. During this period Hesse also served as aship surgeon of a German passenger liner on two

425

Features

round-trips to New York (November 1872 to February1873). Upon his return, he published a paper about seasickness that Professor Gavingel from Le Havre calledthe first rational, scientific publication on the subject.At home, he was recognized by the medical society ofZittau for his interesting observations and contribu-tions. (The trichinosis he had acquired during histravels healed without residual problems.)

The Eilshemius Family

While Walther visited New York,his brother Richard apparently intro-duced him to the Eilshemius family,including Fanny Angelina, whom hesoon married.

Fanny Angelina was born on 22June 1850 in New York, the daughterof an import merchant, Henry (Hin-rich) Gottfried Eilshemius, and hiswife, Cecile Elise. The Eilshemiusfamily was of Dutch descent and orig-inated near Emden, Frisia. HinrichGottfried, Fanny Angelinas father,emigrated to the United States in1842 at age 24. He first settled inHoboken, N.J., and in 1849 marriedCecile Elise Robert, who came from aFrench-Swiss family in Lugano. Theyhad 10 children; 5 died in their earlyyears, and Fanny Angelina was theoldest. Hinrich, now Henry, was asuccessful importer of goods and wasable to retire in his forties. In 1860 he

more recently, infamously known because of the badworking conditions in the uranium mines of the formerGerm.an Democratic Repubiic. He spent more than 10years there and was responsible for 83 villages. Hevisited these villages regularlyand occasionally also on foot.

His main responsibility was the care of sick minerswho suffered from Bergkrankheit (mountain disease),later recognized as lung cancer and also known asSchneeberger Lungenkrebs (lung cancer of Schnee-

bought a 70.acre property, Laurel Hill Manor in NorthArlington, N.J., near Kearny on the Passaic River.Here Fanny Angelina and her siblings grew up, andthe girls learned from their mother and the servantsthe basics of housekeeping and cooking. When Ange-lina was 15, her parents sent her to a finishing schoolin Switzerland to study home economics and French.

After the Civil War it was common for rich Amer-icans to spend the summer in Europe. In 1872, theEilshemius family visited Switzerland, and FannyAngelina and her sister, Eugenie, went on to Germanyand to Dresden, where they met again with WaltherHesse. Dresden, the capital of Saxony, was a majorattraction with its buildings, museums, galleries, andopera and was called Florence on the Elbe River. In thenext summer, Walther Hesse and Angelina Eilshe-mius were engaged, and the wedding took place inGeneva on 16 May 1874.

Walther and Angelina Hesse in Saxony

Walther Hesse practiced medicine in Zittau, wheretheir first son (the authors father, Friedrich Henry,later a surgeon in Dresden) was born in 1875. In 1877Walther was appointed Bezirksarzt (county physician)in Schwarzenberg im Erzgebirge (mountains betweenSaxony and Czechoslovakia), a major mining area and,

by horse and bum-Y

Lina Hesse

ronmental hypgiene, Walther went to Munich to studywith the first chairman of a university department of

berg). After some preliminary studies,Walther published a comprehensive,widely accepted paper about this ma-lignant miners disease. Arsenic wasconsidered the cause of the cancer atthat time, as radioactive substanceslike uranium and radium had notbeen discovered yet. Minerals fromthe nearby St. Joachimtal/Jachymovmines later became the source ofMarie Curies radium.

Aside from the medical problemsof the miners, Walther also concernedhimself with the miserable workingconditions in the mines and the sub-standard housing of the miners. Hemade numerous recommendations tothe government to improve the min-ers conditions, including the protec-tion of the very young workers, aschild labor was common at that time.Again his findings were published in anumber of articles

To increase his knowledge of envi-

hygiene, Max von Pettenkofer, in 1878 to-1879. Withthis experience, Walther worked for many years on thehygienic and public health aspects of the human envi-ronment and- published numerous articles. His pri-mary interest was air quality, especially carbon diox-ide content and dust contamination. The experiencesin the mining villages turned his attention to thehygiene of habitations and schools, an interest thatremained with him to his old age. His responsibilityfor mandatory smallpox vaccinations reflects his firstprofessional dealings in the topic of microbiology.

Bacteriological Studies with Robert Koch

Bacteriology initially interested Walther mainlybecause of its possible contribution to his environmen-tal studies. In 1881 and 1882 he left his post as countyphysician to spend a sabbatical in Robert Kochs Kai-serliches Gesundheitsamt (Imperial Health Agency).There Walther conducted elaborate experiments onthe microbial contamination of air, completing a longreport in which he demonstrated his dedication todetailed work and patience. This research experiencealso broadened his abilities in environmental hygiene,and he continued to contribute to the developing med-

426 ASM News

Features

ical field of hygiene, using the newly acquired skills inbacteriology.

To the studies of air quality, Walther added bacte-riological examinations of drinking water, swimmingpools, and treated wastewater. He made major contri-butions to the methods for quantitative bacteriologicalwater testing. As his knowledge in the new field ofbacteriology increased, he studied bacterial metabo- .lism and described several technical innovations,among others an anaerobe culture technique. Out-breaks of communicable diseases,such as diphtheria, typhoid, bacillarydysentery, and cholera, in the Dres-den area challenged him as a publichealth physician and bacteriologist tostudy the diseases in his laboratory.His contributions to the laboratorydiagnosis of tuberculosis were recog-nized nationally (e.g., by Lydia Rab-inowitsch) and internationally (byTheobald Smith) and werenew culture medium heoped.

based on ahad devel-

Lina Hesse as Technician andIllustrator

Walthers wife, called Lina in thefamily, was his major supporter inmany different projects. Aside fromher duties in the house and in theeducation of three sons, she becamewell acquainted with Walthers scien-tific work and assisted him like a

both Schwarzenberg and Dresden had temperaturesthat caused liquefaction of gelatin, the solid culturemedium used to coat glass tubes used for the studies.Furthermore, gelatin-liquefying bacteria often de-stroyed the cultures. One day the frustrated scientistasked Lina why her jellies and puddings stayed solidat these temperatures. She told him about agar-agar.

Agar-agar had been known as a gelling agent inwarm climates. For example, East Indian swallows useagar for making their nests-the birds nests of the

famous Chinese soup. Lina hadlearned about this material as ayoungster in New York from a Dutchneighbor who had immigrated fromJava. The practical application of thiskitchen secret was to bring major rec-ognition to the Hesses, more todaythan during their lifetime. It contrib-uted to Walthers success with his airstudies, and it was an essential contri-bution to the development of modernbacteriology. The thermal stability ofagar, its resistance to microbial en-zymes, and the ability to sterilize themedium and store it for a long timepermitted long-term cultures, espe-cially important in tuberculosis re-search and diagnosis.

Walther Hesse

Walther reported this finding toRobert Koch, who immediately in-cluded the new medium in his studiesof the tubercle bacillus. AlthoughKoch mentioned agar-agar in a shortsentence in his 1882 preliminary note

present-day medical technologist. The profession wasnot then known. However, this period ushered in manychanges for women in Germany, and they were juststarting to step out of the domestic environment intoprofessional life.

on the tubercle bacillus, he did so without giving creditto the source. Walther soon developed a tuberculosisnutrient agar with the firm of Heyden, Radebeul, thatpermitted him to observe growth on solid agar platesas soon as 2 to 3 days after inoculation.

Working with her husband, Lina soon played amajor part in the magnificent development of medicalillustration. She was not the only talented artist of thefamily. Her grandfather was the-Swiss painter LeopoldRobert, and her younger brother, Louis Eilshemius,achieved some fame as a New York painter. She usedher talent to prepare drawings of microscopic prepara-tions for her husbands publications. The last publica-tion of Walther Hesse from 1908 described a quantita-tive method for the culture of intestinal bacteria withspecial attention to stools from typhoid fever patients.Lina drew pictures of the magnified colonies on agarplates during different growth phases and coloredthem with watercolors in a highly accurate way, i.ndi-eating her thorough un.derstanding of bacteriology andmicroscopy. (The author is proud tomothers original drawings.)

possess .his grand-

The Introduction of Agar-Agar

Walther had major technical problems attemptingto analyze microbial counts in air. In the summertime,

VOL. 58, NO. 8,1992

In the Hesse family, this contribution to bacteriol-ogy was hardly ever mentioned. Lina never spokeabout it, probably because she was a very unassumingperson. She kept all of Walthers papers and docu-ments out of love and respect for her husband and aspart of her own contributions to his work. The Hessesnever received any financial rewards for their inven-tion, nor did they ever consider exploiting the mattercommercially. It would not have been proper.

Walther Hesse and Public Health

In 1899 Walther went on a tour of northern Ger-many, England, and the United States to study publichealth installations. In Hamburg and Bremen he vis-ited the waterworks and industrial and municipalsewage treatment plants and discussed special ques-tions of domestic and industrial wastewaters. On 2September he departed by ship to New York, where hevisited several bacteriological institutes in the ParkerHospital and in the laboratories of the College ofPhysicians and Surgeons. He also inspected the new

427

Features

water reservoir behind the Croton dam along with theaqueducts, comparing the project with the construc-tion of the pyramids or the Tower of Babel. He wassimilarly impressed by the water filtration system ofLawrence, Mass. In Waltham, Mass., near Boston, hemet the physician Alfred Worcester, whose establish-ment of a school for nurses and introduction of Pfundsinfant formula he particularly praised. He liked thecity of Philadelphia, Pa., and its Fairmont Park, and inWashington, D.C., one of the most beautiful cities Ihave seen, he saw a small military hospital and thenew experimental drinking water station with itsgigantic reservoir. He commented on the tremendouswater usage in the United States! In U.S. and Englishcities he reviewed the incidence and therapy of tuber-culosis, typhoid, and diphtheria; looked at school sys-tems; and inquired about dairy cattle, the milk supply,and sewage treatment.

Walther was always very interested in the hygienicaspects of milk, mainly for controlling infant mortal-ity. After the mothers had been saved by Semmelweis,it was time to look at the survival of their offspring andtheir nutritional development. The major problem wasmilk-borne intestinal infections. In 1900 Walther sawa publication by Theobald Smith from Boston concern-ing the pasteurization of milk and the possible controlof tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. UponSmiths request Walther experimentally confirmed hisfindings and became one of the prime advocates of milkpasteurization in Germany. He convinced the Dresdendairy of Pfund Bros. to pasteurize their entire dailymilk volume of about 15,000 liters by heating for 20minutes at 60C. This collaboration with the Pfunddairy, a company with many stores in the city ofDresden, brought Walthers grandchildren, even afterhis death, some advantage. During the time of starva-tion at the end of the first world war, they wereprovided with the rare commodity of milk in memoryof the great services and efforts of their grandfather.

In 1890 Walther moved to Dresden as the Bezirks-arzt for the county around the city of Dresden. Hepurchased a house in Strehlen, a suburb of Dresden,where he lived until his death in 1911. Until he wasgiven a laboratory building by the Chemistry Depar-tement of the Technical University, he worked athome, and many of his publications were written inthis house. He was honored by the government bybeing appointed Geheimer Medizinalrat (privy medi-cal councilor). After his death, the laboratory at theuniversity was burned because the virulent bacterial

cultures, including plague bacilli, were a danger topublic health. Walther left a large collection of min-erals, collected during his many visits to mines. Theauthor inherited the collection and donated it later tohis high school.

Frau Hesse ifi Dresden

Lina survived her husband by 23 years. At first shestayed in the house in Strehlen, but in 1917 she sold itand moved into town to be closer to her children. HerAmerican heritage was evident; she never lost herAmerican accent, counted in English, and often usedEnglish expressions and commands. When her familyhome in New Jersey was sold, her part of the inheri-tance was kept as enemy property during World War I,and only many years later did she receive small sumsof money that helped to enhance her small pension asthe widow of a civil servant. She died on 1 December1934. Since Dresden was completely destroyed byAllied air raids in early 1945, many of the mementos ofthe Hesse family were lost. However, letters, docu-ments, and personal memories were collected frommembers of the family and added to my collection ofWalthers personal reprints held by my grandmother.All that plus my personal memories assisted greatly inthe preparation of this review of Walther and LinaHesses contributions to public health and microbiol-WY- El

Translators Acknowledgment

I am grateful to Wolfgang Hesse for allowing me to translate andedit this brief biography of his grandparents. A full and.verified listof Walthers publications is available. Thanks are due to the staff ofthe University of Virginia Claude Moore Health Sciences Library,especially Joan Echtenkamp Klein.

Suggested Reading

Bibel, D. J. 1985. William Bullochs pioneer women of microbiology.ASM News X:328-333.

Gildemeister, E. 1929. Allgemeine, besondere und differentialdiag-nostische Nahrbiiden, einschleil3lich Trocken- und Konserven-nahrboden. In W. Kolle, R. Kraus, and P. Uhlenhut (ed.), W. Kolleund A. v. Wassermanns Handbuch der pathogenen Mikroorgan-ismen, 3rd ed., vol. 9, p. 965. G. Fischer, Jena, Germany.

Griischel, D. H. M. 1981.100 years of agar use in microbiology. ASMNews 47:39X592.

Hitchens, A. P., and M. C. Leikind. 1939. The introduction of agar-agar into bacteriology. J. Bacterial. 37:485493.

von Gierke, E. 1935. Zur Einfuhrung des Agar-Agars in die bakte-riologische Technik. Ein Gedenkwort fur eine deutsche Arztfrau.Zentralbl. Bakteriol. Orig. 1 133:273.

.

428 ASM News