Like all branches of theoretical and practical medicine, bacteriology owes much of its early advancement to the leaders of the Prussian army medical department. The Prussian sur geon Struck, as head of the Imperial Board of Health in Berlin, took the initiative in creat ing the first standard working laboratory, which served as a model for all subsequent institutes without this powerful aid Koch could not have developed his pioneer methods. Earlier pupils of the army medical school, like Helmholtz, Virchow, Reichert, Leyden, Fischer, and Nothnagel had already achieved important professional positions and upon the establishment of hygienic and bacteriological laboratories and the creation of professorships, German army physicians, and chie?y indeed those who were pupils of this institute, appeared as workers of the first rank among these I may name, Behring, Buchner, Fischer, Gartner.