Kruse

KRUSE Walther (Walther Kruse, born in 1864), bacteriologist and hygienist, professor in Leipzig. He completed his medical education in Berlin under the direction of Virchow. In the early years of his medical activity, K. devoted himself to the study of dysentery, for which purpose in 1892 he went on a scientific expedition to Egypt. Upon his return, he published (jointly with A. Pasquale) the work: "Untersuchungen iiber Disen-terie und Leberabsqess" (Zeitschr. f. Hyg., B. XVI, H. I, 1894). While studying the dysentery epidemic in Germany, K. in 1900 discovered the causative agent of this disease ("Uber die Ruhr als Volkskrankheit u. ihren Erreger", Deutsche med. Wochenschr., 1900, No. 40)—a bacillus that received the name Bac. Shiga-Kruse, since almost simultaneously and independently of K., it was also discovered by the Japaneseman Shiga while studying the Japanese epidemic. K. was the first to propose the theory, which was later developed mainly by Baile and received the name "theory of aggressins". In addition to numerous experimental and review works, K. is the author of a valuable guide on metabolism, chemistry, etc. in microbes ("Allgemeine Microbiologie, Lpz., 1910").