Max von Gruber

Unlike some of the great names of the time, among them Carl Wilhelm Nägeli, Theodor Billroth (1829–1894), Ferdinand Cohn (1828–1898), and Robert Koch (1843–1910), Gruber recognized that bacteria possess a variability within limits partially determined by the culture medium.

He blamed alcoholism and sexually transmitted diseases for the degradation of human germ plasm and society and advocated for eugenics, observing that medicine and hygiene were important in removing degenerate people and other conditions that weaken the race.

[2] In 1882 Gruber was habilitated as a lecturer in Vienna, and two years later he became associate professor and head of the newly established Institute for Hygiene at the University of Graz.

Gruber eventually left Vienna in 1902, and in October that year he succeeded Hans Buchner as director of the Institute for Hygiene in München.

Face and head of inferior type, cross-breed; low receding forehead, ugly nose, broad cheekbones, little eyes, dark hair.