William Budd described the contagious nature of the disease and incriminated fecally contaminated water sources in transmission.
In 1880, Karl Joseph Eberth noted rod-shaped organism in the lymph nodes and spleens of typhoid patients. He referred to it as Eberthella typhi. Karl Eberth is credited with discovering the serovar Typhi organism.
The first successful cultivation of Salmonella serovar Typhi was performed by George Gaffky from German patients in 1884.
Salmonella was originally discovered by a technician named Theobald Smith in 1885; however, it was named after the technician’s research leader, Daniel Elmer Salmon who was a veterinarian.
They first found Salmonella in hogs that were ill with a disease called hog cholera. At the time they named the organism ‘Hog-cholerabacillus’.
It did not get the name Salmonella until the year 1900, when French scientist Joseph Leon Lignieres suggested calling the entire swine group Salmonella in honor of Salmon.
In 1896, George Widal coined the term ‘agglutinin’ to describe the clumping of heat-killed serovar Typhi cells by convalescent serum.
Discovery of Salmonella
