An artist asked the gallery owner if there had been any interest in her paintings that were on display.
"Well, I have good news and bad news," the owner responded. "The good news is that a gentleman noticed your work and wondered if it would appreciate in value after your death. I told him it would and he bought all 10 of your paintings."
"That's wonderful," the artist exclaimed. "What's the bad news?"
"The gentleman was your doctor."
Arthur NicolaierDied 28 Aug 1942 at age 80 (born 4 Feb 1862).German physician and bacteriologist who discovered the tetanus bacterium in 1884. Though he was unable to obtain it as a pure culture, it was isolated within a few years by Shibasaburo Kitsato. He discovered it lived in soil, with which he innoculated mice. Because of its presence in earth, it is responsible for infection from dirty wounds, which was particularly significant in the cases of wounded soldiers during WW I. The toxin secreted by this bacterium,Clostridium tetani,causing fatal muscle spasms. It was later found to travel along nerves to the spinal chord, causing increasingly severe spasms of the head and neck and jaw, from which came the common name of lockjaw. Fortunately for the injured soldiers, every soldier received an anti-toxin, used from 1915. Nicolaier died, aged 80, in 1942, pending wartime internment as a Jew, likely by suicide.« |
