Christian A. Th. Billroth (1829-1894), studied at Greifswald, Gottingen and Berlin, becoming Professor of Surgery at the University of Vienna in 1867. Like many of his contemporaries, Billroth was a competent microscopist and histologist, skills he drew upon to note connections between diseases and specific micro-organisms.

In 1874 Billroth detected chains of spherical organisms in surgical wound infections, and he coined the genus name "Streptococcus" to refer to them. See Rosenbach.

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Created 9 December 2016

Last modified 8 February 2023