| Karl Joseph Eberth | |
| Birth Date: | 21 September 1835 |
| Birth Place: | Würzburg, Germany |
| Death Place: | Berlin |
| Fields: | Bacteriology, pathology |
| Alma Mater: | University of Würzburg |
| Doctoral Students: | Oswald Bumke |
| Known For: | Discovery of the typhoid bacillus |
Karl Joseph Eberth (21 September 1835 – 2 December 1926) was a German pathologist and bacteriologist who was a native of Würzburg.
In 1859 he earned his doctorate at the University of Würzburg, and became an assistant to anatomist Albert von Kölliker (1817–1905). In 1869 he became a full professor of pathological anatomy at the University of Zurich, and from 1881 until his retirement in 1911, he was a professor at the University of Halle.
In 1880 Eberth described a bacillus that he suspected was the cause of typhoid.[1] In 1884 pathologist Georg Theodor August Gaffky (1850–1918) confirmed Eberth's findings,[2] and the organism was given names such as "Eberthella typhi", "Eberth's bacillus" and "Gaffky-Eberth bacillus". Today the bacillus that causes typhoid fever goes by the scientific name of Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Typhi.[3] [4]
Parts of this article are based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia.