Theobald Smith (1859-1934), a U.S. physician and bacteriologist who received his MD from Albany Medical College in 1883, after which he joined the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Veterinary Division, Washington D.C. as a laboratory specialist and epidemiologist. In 1884 Smith became Inspector, Bureau for Animal Industry, and succeeded in isolating the gram-negative bacillus responsible for enteric-typhoid-disease. Named in 1900 after his departmental chief, Daniel E. Salmon, this exemplar of the now more than 2500 known serovars/sub-varieties was originally named "Hog cholera-bacillus", and then "Salmonella enterica" (var. Choleraesuis, for Swine fever. [German: Schweinepest]. In 1886 to 1895 Smith established and ran the Dept. of Bacteriology, Columbian University of Washington D.C., now George Washington University, making a special study of the fecal coliforms found in the Potomac River in Washington, D. C. and in the Hudson River in New York. From 1895-1915 he served simultaneously as Professor Comparative Pathology at Harvard University & Director of the Pathology Laboratory, Massachusetts State Board of Health. From 1915-1929 Smith was Director of Department Animal Pathology, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City.
Created 9 December 2016
Last modified 8 February 2023