author
Theobald Smith
1859–1934
A pioneering American bacteriologist and pathologist, he helped show how infectious diseases move between animals and humans and transformed early public health science. His work on Texas cattle fever gave some of the first clear proof that ticks can transmit disease.
1 Audiobook
Sewage Disposal on the Farm, and Protection of Drinking Water
by Theobald Smith
About the author
Born in Albany, New York, in 1859, Theobald Smith studied at Cornell University and earned his medical degree from Albany Medical College. He built his career at a time when bacteriology and pathology were still young fields, and he became one of the first American medical researchers to gain major international recognition.
Smith is especially known for his work on Texas cattle fever, in which he identified the parasite involved and showed that the disease was spread by ticks. That finding was a landmark in epidemiology because it helped establish that arthropods can transmit infectious disease. Over the course of his career, he also made important contributions to microbiology, immunology, and veterinary as well as human medicine.
He later worked at Harvard and at the Rockefeller Institute, continuing a long research career that linked laboratory science with practical public health. Remembered for careful, wide-ranging research, he is often described as one of the founders of modern American microbiology.