Karl Friedrich Meyer (1884-1974): His ambitions, approach and achievements.

Karl Meyer was one of the outstanding scientists in the areas of medical and veterinary microbiology, infectious diseases, pathology, epidemiology, ecology, academic education and public health during the first half of the 20th century. He was an exceptional scientist with an enormous drive to deepen knowledge and understanding, in the interest of the people, to improve diagnosis and treatment of many zoonoses including prevention and improvement in health laws. This paper presents a survey of the extraordinarily wide-ranging achievements of Meyer and his systems approach.