Richard Pfeiffer
The German bacteriologist who in 1892 described the bacillus named after him, which many doctors in 1918 believed caused influenza.
The Government Explains the Flu, 1918
U.S. Public Health Service (Rupert Blue, Surgeon General), “Spanish Influenza,” “Three-Day Fever,” “The Flu” (1918) · September 28, 1918
Bacteriologists who have studied influenza epidemics in the past have found in many of the cases a very small rod-shaped germ called, after its discoverer, Pfeiffer’s bacillus. In other cases of apparently the same kind of disease there were found pneumococci, the germs of lobar pneumonia. Still others have been caused by streptococci, and by other germs with long names.
Bacteriologists who have studied influenza epidemics in the past have found in many of the cases a very small rod-shaped germ called, after its discoverer, Pfeiffer’s bacillus. In other cases of apparently the same kind of disease there were found pneumococci, the germs of lobar pneumonia. Still others have been caused by streptococci, and by other germs with long names.