Kristaps Helmanis (german: Christopher Hellmann, russian: Христофор Иванович Гельман; 3 June 1848 – 2 March 1892) was a Latvian vaccinologist and microbiologist. 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 admi ...

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 (though the bacteri ...

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'', german: Hofzumberge) 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 ...

(then ''Hofzumberge'', Courland Governorate), 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, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

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 and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

St Petersburg, 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 that occurs primarily in horses, mules, and donkeys. It can be contracted by other animals, such as dogs, cats, pigs, goats, and humans. It is caused by infection with the bacterium ''Burkhold ...

in horses and laboratory animals. When Louis Pasteur created a vaccine against rabies in 1886, Kristaps Helmanis devoted himself to research of rabies in St Petersburg and reported his results to the

Duke Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg , house =House of Holstein-Gottorp , father =Duke Peter of Oldenburg , mother = Princess Therese of Nassau-Weilburg , birth_date = , birth_place = St. Petersburg, Russian Empire , death_date = , ...

, 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) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

, syphilis,

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 (WHO) c ...

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

International Medical Congress The International Medical Congress (french: Congrès International de Médecine) 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, dur ...

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; ) 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 ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...

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

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helmanis, Kristaps 1848 births 1892 deaths People from Tērvete Municipality People from Courland Governorate Latvian biologists Vaccinologists