Karl Joseph Eberth

Karl Joseph Eberth (1835-1926) was a German pathologist and bacteriologist best known for describing, in 1880, a bacillus he suspected caused typhoid fever, work that was later confirmed and became the foundation for identifying the typhoid pathogen. The organism was named in his honor, as Eberth's bacillus and the Gaffky-Eberth bacillus, and is classified today as Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Typhi. He held professorships at the University of Zurich and the University of Halle, and several anatomical structures, including Eberth's lines and Eberth's perithelium, bear his name.