Victor Vaughan's career at the University of Michigan spanned more than four decades, beginning with his graduate studies in physiological chemistry during the 1870s and ending in 1921 with his retirement after three decades as dean of the medical school. Not only was he instrumental in modernizing medical training at Michigan, his work in areas of hygiene, epidemiology and the study of toxins and infectious disease was highly regarded on the national scene. Twice he was called upon to serve his country in times of crisis. During the Spanish-American War he was a key member of the Typhoid Commission which investigated the outbreak of the life-threatening fever among army recruits in southern camps. During World War I, he was a member of the medical board within the Council of National Defense which contended with an unprecedented influenza outbreak. Vaughan's professional work included more than 250 published papers and some 17 books, many outlining laboratory techniques that modernized the newly evolving field of bacteriology.

In bacteriology's Golden Age (roughly 1870-1890) European physicians focused on bacteria as causal agents of disease. Advances in microscopy and laboratory methodology--including the ability to isolate and identify micro-organisms--played critical roles. Robert Koch, the most well known of the European researchers for his identification of the etiological agents of anthrax, tuberculosis and cholera, established in Germany the first teaching laboratory for training physicians in the new methods. Bacteriology was largely absent in early U.S. medical schools. Dozens of American physicians-in-training enrolled in Koch's course in Germany, and many established bacteriology courses upon their return. This book highlights those who became acknowledged leaders in the field and whose work remains influential.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Frederick Novy was the leader among a new breed of full-time bacteriologists at American medical schools. Although historians have examined bacteriologic work done in American health department laboratories, there has been little examination of similar work completed within U.S. medical schools during this period. In Frederick Novy and the Development of Bacteriology in Medicine, medical historian, medical researcher, and clinician Powel H. Kazanjian uses Novy’s archived letters, laboratory notebooks, lecture notes, and published works to examine medical research and educational activities at the University of Michigan and other key medical schools during a formative period in modern medical science.

D.--from the Introduction "Canadian Bulletin of Medical History"