Kristaps Helmanis (, ; 3 June 1848 – 2 March 1892) was a Latvian vaccinologist and

microbiologist A microbiologist (from Greek ) is a scientist who studies microscopic life forms and processes. This includes study of the growth, interactions and characteristics of microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, fungi, and some types of par ...

. He discovered

tuberculin Tuberculin, also known as purified protein derivative, is a combination of proteins that are used in the diagnosis of tuberculosis. This use is referred to as the tuberculin skin test and is recommended only for those at high risk. Reliable adm ...

simultaneously with

Robert Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( ; ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera and anthrax, he i ...

and mallein together with Oto Kalniņš (1891).

Biography

Letter of Louis Pasteur to Kristaps Helmanis 1887

Helmanis was born on 3 June 1848 in

Tērvete Tērvete (liv. ''Terwenden'', ) is a village in Tērvete Parish, Dobele Municipality in the Semigallia region of Latvia. It is famous for the historic hillfort built for the kings of Western Semigallia (Zemgale) in the Middle Ages. History Acc ...

(then ''Hofzumberge'',

Courland Governorate Courland Governorate, also known as the Province of Courland or Governorate of Kurland, and known from 1795 to 1796 as the Viceroyalty of Courland, was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the ...

), received education at the parish school and Jelgava Real School (''Jelgavas reālskola''). He studied

veterinary medicine Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, medical diagnosis, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all a ...

at the Dorpat Veterinary Institute (''Kaiserliche Veterinair-Institut zu Dorpat'', 1873–1877) and received a gold medal for his work “On Development of Spermatozoids of Vertebrates”. After graduation he stayed at the institute for a degree of master of science he received in 1879. Then Helmanis relocated to the capital of

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

, where he started to work as a veterinary of the guard cavalry regiment. There he organised a laboratory by the dispensary and started to study clinical symptoms of

glanders Glanders is a contagious, zoonotic infectious disease caused by the bacterium '' Burkholderia mallei'', which primarily occurs in horses, mules, and donkeys, but can also be contracted by dogs and cats, pigs, goats, and humans. The term ''glan ...

in horses and laboratory animals. When

Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, Fermentation, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the la ...

created a vaccine against rabies in 1886, Kristaps Helmanis devoted himself to the research of rabies in St. Petersburg and reported his results to the Duke Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg, who supported his studies. Kristaps Helmanis himself paid a visit to Paris. Louis Pasteur sent two collaborators to St. Petersburg in order to create a station, and the second Pasteur station in the Russian Empire administered by Helmanis was founded. At the Pasteur station he not only vaccinated bitten patients, but also tried to create diagnostic serums for

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms depend on the stage it presents: primary, secondary, latent syphilis, latent or tertiary. The prim ...

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

and

anthrax Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Bacillus anthracis'' or ''Bacillus cereus'' biovar ''anthracis''. Infection typically occurs by contact with the skin, inhalation, or intestinal absorption. Symptom onset occurs between one ...

. He obtained diagnostic test for tuberculosis and informed Louis Pasteur about his discovery. At the same time Robert Koch at the Tenth

International Medical Congress The International Medical Congress () was a series of international scientific conferences on medicine that took place, periodically, from 1867 until 1913. The idea of such a congress came in 1865, during the third annual Medical Congress of Fr ...

held 1890 in Berlin unexpectedly introduced a cure for tuberculosis, which he called tuberculin. In 1890 Kristaps Helmanis left the army service and joined newly founded Institute of Experimental Medicine in St. Petersburg as the head of the division of epizootology. He was successful to obtain microbial extract of glanders called mallein.Гельман Христофор Иванович

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Great Russian Enc ...

Unfortunately several of Helmanis’ collaborators and colleagues Alfrēds Bertušs (1849—1890), Roberts Vāgners (1861—1890) and Oto Kalniņš (1856—1891) became infected and died from this disease. On 10 March 1892 Helmanis married

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

n singer Emmelin Strandman, but soon after he died from a brain tumour. He was buried in Tērvete.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helmanis, Kristaps 1848 births 1892 deaths People from Dobele Municipality People from Courland Governorate 19th-century biologists from the Russian Empire Vaccinologists