Charles Jean Henri Nicolle

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Charles Jean Henri Nicolle
Done by student : Elanany Mohand
Group: 19LC4(a)
Supervisor: Tatyana Gavrilova

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Charles Jules Henri Nicolle
• The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1928
• Born: 21 September 1866, Rouen, France
• Died: 28 February 1936, Tunis, Tunisia
• Prize motivation: "for his work on typhus."
• Prize share: 1/1
• Charles Jules Henri Nicolle (21 September 1866 Rouen – 28 February 1936 Tunis) was a
French bacteriologist who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his identification of lice
as the transmitter of epidemic typhus.

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Charles Jules Henry Nicolle was born in Rouen where his father, Eugène Nicolle, was a
doctor in a local hospital. Charles received, together with his brothers, early tuition in
biology from his father and, after education at the Lycée Corneille de Rouen, he
entered the local medical school where he studied for three years before following his
elder brother, Maurice, who was working in Paris hospitals. (Maurice later became
Director of the Bacteriological Institute of Constantinople and a Professor at the
Pasteur Institute, Paris.) Meanwhile, Charles had studied under A. Gombault in the
Faculty of Medicine and under Roux at the Pasteur Institute (serving at the same time
as demonstrator in the microbiology course) to complete a thesis “Recherches sur la
chancre mou” (Researches on the soft chancre), which gained him his M.D. degree in
1893. He returned to Rouen to become a member of the Medical Faculty and in 1896
he was appointed Director of the Bacteriological Laboratory. He continued in this
capacity until 1903 when he was appointed Director of the Pasteur Institute in Tunis, a
position he held until his death in 1936.

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Early in his career, Nicolle worked on cancer, and at Rouen he investigated the preparation of
diphtheria antiserum. In North Africa, under his influence, the Institute at Tunis quickly
became a world-famous centre for bacteriological research and for the production of vaccines
and serums to combat most of the prevalent infectious diseases. His discovery in 1909 that
typhus fever is transmitted by the body louse helped to make a clear distinction between the
classical louse-bound epidemic typhus and murine typhus, which is conveyed to man by the
rat flea. He also made invaluable contributions to present-day knowledge of Malta fever,
where he introduced preventive vaccination; tick fever, where he discovered the means of
transmission; scarlet fever, by experimental reproduction with streptococci; rinderpest,
measles, influenza, by his work on the nature of the virus; tuberculosis and trachoma. He was
responsible for the introduction of many new techniques and innovations in bacteriology.
Nicolle was one of the first to recognize the protective properties of the convalescence serum
against typhus and measles; and succeeded in cultivating Leishmania donovani and
Leishmania tropica on artificial culture media. His discovery of the mechanism of the
transmission of typhus fever has created the basis for the preventive precautions against this
disease, during the 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 Wars.

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He learned about biology early from his father Eugène Nicolle, a doctor at a
Rouen hospital. He was educated at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen. He
received his M.D. in 1893 from the Pasteur Institute. At this point he returned
to Rouen, as a member of the Medical Faculty until 1896 and then as Director
of the Bacteriological Laboratory.
In 1903 Nicolle became Director of the Pasteur Institute in Tunis, where he did
his Nobel Prize-winning work on typhus, bringing Hélène Sparrow with him as
laboratory chief. He was still director of the Institute when he died in 1936. He
was a key researcher in discovering a deadly organism, Toxoplasma.
He also wrote fiction and philosophy throughout his life, including the books
Le Pâtissier de Bellone, Les deux Larrons, and Les Contes de Marmouse.

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Nicolle wrote several important books including Le Destin des Maladies
infectieuses; La Nature, conception et morale biologiques; Responsabilités de
la Médecine, and La Destinée humaine.
Nicolle was an Associate of l’Academie de Médecine and he was awarded the
Prix Montyon in 1909, 1912, and 1914; the Prix Osiris in 1927, and a special
Gold Medal to commemorate his Silver Jubilee in Tunis in 1928. On this
occasion he was also appointed member of the Académie des Sciences, Paris.
In 1932, he was elected Professor in the College of France.
Charles Nicolle also enjoyed considerable reputation as a philosopher and as a
writer of fanciful stories, such as Le Pâtissier de Bellone, Les deux Larrons, and
Les Contes de Marmouse. He was said by Jean Rostand to be “a poet and
realist, a man of dreams and a man of truth”.

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Accomplishments
Nicolle's major accomplishments in bacteriology and parasitology were:
The discovery of the transmission method of typhus fever
The introduction of a vaccination for Malta fever
The discovery of the transmission method of tick fever
His studies of cancer, scarlet fever, rinderpest, measles, influenza, tuberculosis
and trachoma.
Identification of the parasitic organism Toxoplasma gondii within the tissues of
the gundi (Ctenodactylus gundi).
During his life Nicolle wrote a number of non-fiction and bacteriology books,
including Le Destin des Maladies infectieuses; La Nature, conception et morale
biologiques; Responsabilités de la Médecine, and La Destinée humaine.

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Discovery of the vector
Nicolle's discovery came about first from his observation that, while epidemic typhus
patients were able to infect other patients inside and outside the hospital, and their
very clothes seemed to spread the disease, they were no longer infectious when they
had had a hot bath and a change of clothes. Once he realized this, he reasoned that it
was most likely that lice were the vector for epidemic typhus.
In June 1909 Nicolle tested his theory by infecting a chimpanzee with typhus,
retrieving the lice from it, and placing it on a healthy chimpanzee. Within 10 days the
second chimpanzee had typhus as well. After repeating his experiment he was sure
of it: lice were the carriers.
Further research showed that the major transmission method was not louse bites
but excrement: lice infected with typhus turn red and die after a couple of weeks, but
in the meantime they excrete a large number of microbes. When a small quantity of
this is rubbed on the skin or eye, an infection occurs.

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Attempt at a vaccine
Nicolle surmised that he could make a simple vaccine by
crushing up the lice and mixing it with blood serum from
recovered patients. He first tried this vaccine on himself, and
when he stayed healthy he tried it on a few children (because
of their better immune systems), who developed typhus but
recovered.
He did not succeed in his effort to develop a practical vaccine.
The next step would be taken by Rudolf Weigl in 1930.