This is an account of the life and work of Robert Koch (1843-1910), Nobel Laureate in Medicine and a founder of the science of bacteriology. In particular, Koch's researches into tuberculosis are described-the discovery of the tubercle bacillus, the controversy regarding the human and bovine types, the Koch phenomenon, and the introduction of tuberculin, which proved to be ineffective as a cure but became important as a diagnostic tool in the management of tuberculosis. By his achievements in this field, Koch may be considered to be the father of the scientific study of tuberculosis. On the occasion of the centenary of Koch's discovery of the tubercle bacillus in 1882, we pay tribute to this great German master of medicine.

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Summary.-Serum vitamin A concentrations were measured in 26 newly diagnosed lung -cancer patients and found to be significantlv lower than those of patients of similar age with either non-malignant lung or non-lung diseases. The levels of vitamin A in the lung-cancer patients, but not in the controls, were significantly correlated with serum concentrations of retinol-binding protein (RBP) and zinc. It is suggested that low levels of zinc might reduce the synthesis of RBP and thus reduce the mobilization of vitamin A from the liver.

Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec was born on 17 February 1781 in Quimper and spent much of his youth in Nantes, where his uncle Guillaume was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. He was considerably influenced by his uncle and went to study medicine in Paris where he qualified in 1804. Among his teachers were Corvisart and Bayle who stimulated his interest in the clinical diagnosis of diseases of the chest and especially tuberculosis, from which Laennec himself suffered. His clinical experience and morbid anatomical dissections at the Necker Hospital culminated in his invention of the stethoscope (1816) and the writing of his masterpiece De l'Auscultation Mediate (1819) which may be regarded as the pioneer treatise from which modern chest medicine has evolved. Despite his great success in Paris, Laennec always retained a great love for his native Brittany. When his health finally broke down, he returned to his home Kerlouarnec, near Quimper, and died there on 13 August 1826, aged 45 years. On the occasion of the bicentenary of his birth we pay homage to the memory of this great French physician. "People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors." Edmund Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France Two hundred years have elapsed since the birth of the great French physician, Rene Th6ophile Hyacinthe Laennec, who, by his invention of the stethoscope, bequeathed to us the first tool to aid clinical diagnosis, as well as providing the symbol by which, more than any other, the physician is at present recognised. Moreover, in his great treatise, De l'A uscultation Mediate, Laennec's rational clinico-pathological approach may be said to have laid the foundations of modern clinical medicine and especially our understanding of cardiorespiratory disease.

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