This is what the American National Institutes of Health looked like back when it consisted of one office on Staten Island, manned by a single 20-something researcher. It's almost a little insane to think about now, but when it first opened in 1887, the " Laboratory of Hygiene" (as it was then called) was entirely staffed by one man, 27-year-old Joseph James Kinyoun.
Kinyoun's first order of business was to collect blood and stool samples from the sick in order to culture pathogens in the lab. In his first year on the job, he became the first person in the United States to isolate the gram-negative bacterium Vibrio cholerae–providing his American colleagues with their first glimpse of the microorganism responsible for tens of thousands of deaths since it had first reached US shores in the 1830s. This and other successes were duly noted by Congress, which by 1902 had expanded the laboratory to include other divisions, such as chemistry and zoology.
Although microorganisms had been visible to the human eye for nearly 400 years thanks to the invention of microscopes in the 1600s, a definitive connection between bacteria and infectious disease wasn't made until the late 19th century. Instead, filth and poverty were blamed for deadly epidemics, and treatment and prevention strategies were aimed at improving sanitation and welfare. During his time at the Hygienic Laboratory (as it was later called), Kinyoun sailed to Europe for six months to train with the great bacteriologists of his day, including Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur, bringing back laboratory techniques, recipes for effective treatments, and a passionate vision for reforming US health practices, says author and historian Joseph Houts, Kinyoun's great-grandson. "It was in great part due to him that the 'germ theory' made its way back to the United States," Houts adds.
This bit of fascinating history brought to you by The Scientist magazine.
