Theobald Smith
American microbiologist
Background
Born: July 31, 1859 in Albany, New York, United States
Died: December 10, 1934 in Princeton, New Jersey, United States
- Nationality: American
- Education: received the degree of M.D. from the Albany Medical College in 1883, Did graduate work in biology at Johns Hopkins, University of Toronto, and Cornell
Accomplishments
- 1886: Organized at the Columbian (now George Washington) University the first department of bacteriology in any American medical school.
- Did notable work on small pox vaccine and on antitoxins for diphtheria and tetanus
- he showed that the disease of turkeys called "blackhead" was due to a protozoan transmitted by an intestinal Worm parasite
- he noted that animals acted hypersensitive to bacterial infections under certain circumstances. this became known as "Theobald Smith phenomenon" it was the first recorded observation of allergies.
Salmonella
- Theobald smith and Daniel Salmon isolated the Bacterium from pigs.
Babesia bigemina
- transmitted by the cattle tick Boophlius annulatus
Blackhead turkey disease
- Transmitted by an intestinal Worm parasite
Citations
"Theobald Smith." Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1944. Biography in Context. Web. 7 Jan. 2016.
Hoyle, Brian. "Salmonella." Food: In Context. Ed. Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2011. 695-698. In Context Series. Science in Context. Web. 11 Jan. 2016.