Karl Joseph Eberth (September 21, 1835 - December 2, 1926) was a German pathologist and bacteriologist who was a native of Würzburg. In 1859 he earned his doctorate at the University of Würzburg, and became an assistant to anatomist Albert von Kölliker (1817-1905). In 1869 he became a full professor of pathological anatomy at the University of Zurich, and from 1881 until his retirement in 1911, he was a professor at the University of Halle.

In 1880 Eberth described a bacillus that he suspected was the cause of typhus. In 1884 pathologist Georg Theodor August Gaffky (1850-1918) confirmed Eberth's findings, and the organism was given names such as Eberth's bacillus, Eberthella typhi and Gaffky-Eberth bacillus. Today the bacillus that causes typhoid fever goes by the scientific name of Salmonella typhi.

• Eponyms named after Karl Eberth:
• Eberth's lines: Microscopic lines that appear between the cells of the myocardium when stained with silver nitrate.
• Eberth's perithelium: an incomplete layer of connective tissue cells encasing the blood capillaries.

References

This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia.