Editing Theodor Escherich

{{short description|Austrian doctor}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name              = Theodor Escherich
|image             = Escherich, Theodor.jpg
|image_size       = 200px
|caption           = Theodor Escherich, around 1900
|birth_date        = {{Birth date|df=yes|1857|11|29}}
|birth_place       = [[Ansbach]], [[Kingdom of Bavaria]]
|death_date        = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1911|2|15|1857|11|29}}
|death_place       = [[Vienna]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
|residence         =
|citizenship       = {{Unbulleted list|{{nowrap|[[Kingdom of Bavaria]]}}|[[Austria-Hungary]]}}
|nationality       = [[Germany|German]], [[Austria]]n
|ethnicity         =
|fields            = [[Medicine]], [[pediatrics]], [[bacteriology]]
|alma_mater        = {{unbulleted list| [[University of Würzburg]]|[[University of Kiel]]| [[University of Berlin]]}}
|workplaces        = {{Unbulleted list|Julius Hospital, [[Würzburg]]|St. Anna Children's Hospital, [[Vienna]]|Children’s Polyclinic of the Reisingerianum, [[Munich]]|Hauner Children’s Hospital, [[Munich]]|[[University of Munich]]|[[University of Graz]]}}
|doctoral_advisor  = [[Carl Jakob Adolf Christian Gerhardt]]
|academic_advisors =
|notable_students  =
|known_for         = Discovery of ''[[Escherichia coli]]''
|influences        =
|influenced        =
|awards            = {{Unbulleted list|{{nowrap|[[Kaiserlich und königlich|k. k.]] [[Geheimrat|Hofrat]]}} (1906)}}
|religion          =
|signature         = Theodor Escherich signature.svg
|footnotes         =
|spouse            = Margaretha Pfaundler
}}

'''Theodor Escherich''' ({{IPA|de|ˈteːodoːɐ̯ ˈʔɛʃəʁɪç}}; 29 November 1857 &ndash; 15 February 1911) was a [[Germans|German]]-[[Austrians|Austrian]] [[pediatrics|pediatrician]]  and a professor at universities in [[University of Graz|Graz]] and [[University of Vienna|Vienna]]. He discovered and described the bacterium ''[[Escherichia coli]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shulman |first1=S. T. |last2=Friedmann |first2=H. C. |last3=Sims |first3=R. H. |title=Theodor Escherich: The First Pediatric Infectious Diseases Physician? |journal=Clinical Infectious Diseases |date=15 October 2007 |volume=45 |issue=8 |pages=1025–1029 |doi=10.1086/521946 |pmid=17879920 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

==Life and achievements==

=== Family and education ===
Theodor Escherich was born in [[Ansbach]], as the younger son of ''Kreismedizinalrat'' (District Medical Officer) Ferdinand Escherich (1810−1888), a medical [[statistician]], and his second wife, Maria Sophie Frederike von Stromer, daughter of a Bavarian army colonel. When Theodor Escherich was five, his mother died, and five years later Ferdinand Escherich moved to [[Würzburg]] to take up his former position as ''Kreismedizinalrat'' and married his third wife. When Theodor was 12, he was sent to a boarding school run by [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]]  in [[Feldkirch, Vorarlberg|Feldkirch]], [[Austria]] for three years. Later, he finished secondary education in Würzburg, where he attended a [[Gymnasium (school)|''Gymnasium'']] (classical language high school) and took his ''[[Abitur]]''  examination in 1876.

After a half-year military service in [[Strasbourg]],  Escherich took up his studies of medicine at the [[University of Würzburg]] in the winter term of 1876. Later, he attended the universities of [[Kiel]] and [[Berlin]], and returned to Würzburg before passing his  medical examination with excellence in December 1881.

===Medical career in Würzburg and Munich (1882−1890)===
After an 18-month service in a military hospital in [[Munich]], Escherich returned to Würzburg in 1882 to become second and later first assistant to the internist [[Carl Jakob Adolf Christian Gerhardt]] in the medical clinic of the [[Stiftung Juliusspital Würzburg|Julius Hospital, Würzburg]]. Gerhardt became Escherich's doctoral advisor and suggested the topic of his thesis.<ref>The title of his thesis was ''Die marantische Sinusthrombose bei Cholera infantum'' ("[[Marantic thrombosis]] with infantile [[cholera]]").</ref> On 27 October 1882, Escherich was awarded his [[medical doctorate]]. In the following two years, he attended lectures in Vienna (with Hermann von Widerhofer and Alois Monti) and did [[bacteriology|bacteriological]] research work at the St Anna Children's Clinic. In August 1884, he continued his research work in Munich, where pediatrics had been established as a department of the medical faculty. In October 1884, the Bavarian authorities sent Escherich to [[Naples]] to do research work in the actual [[cholera]] epidemic. He also travelled to [[Paris]], where he heard lectures by [[Jean-Martin Charcot]], the renowned [[neurologist]].

===Discovery of ''Escherichia coli''===
[[File:escherichbook.jpg|left|180px|thumb|Escherich's habilitation treatise]]
In 1886, after intensive laboratory investigations, Escherich published a monograph on the relationship of intestinal bacteria to the physiology of digestion in the infant. This work, presented to the medical faculty in Munich and published in [[Stuttgart]], {{Lang|de|Die Darmbakterien des Säuglings und ihre Beziehungen zur Physiologie der Verdauung}} (1886) (''Enterobacteria of infants and their relation to digestion physiology''), was to become his habilitation treatise and established him as the leading bacteriologist in the field of paediatrics.<br>
It was also the publication where Escherich described a bacterium which he called “bacterium coli commune” and which was later to be called ''Escherichia coli''.<ref>According to  Oberbauer p. 314,   the naming was proposed by [[Aldo Castellani]] and his partner Chalmers in 1919, but the name was not officially recognized until 1958.</ref> For the next four years, Escherich worked as first assistant to [[Heinrich von Ranke]] at the Munich ''Von Haunersche Kinderklinik''.

===Professor of Pediatrics in Graz and Vienna (1890−1911)===
In 1890, Escherich succeeded [[Rudolf von Jaksch]], who had been called to Prague, as professor extraordinary of pediatrics and director of the St Anna children’s clinic in Graz, where he became professor ordinary four years later. While working in Graz, he married Margarethe Pfaundler (1890−1946), daughter of the physicist [[Leopold Pfaundler]]. They had a son Leopold (born 1893), who died at age ten, and a daughter Charlotte (called "Sonny") (born 1895), who survived to the 1980s. <br> Escherich made the Graz pediatric hospital one of the best-known institutions in Europe. <!-- Details of his Graz achievements to be added-->

In 1902, Escherich succeeded Hermann Widerhofer as full professor of pediatrics in Vienna, where he directed the {{Lang|de|St.-Anna-Kinderspital}} (St. Anna Children's Hospital).

Escherich became renowned in 1903 when he founded the {{Lang|de|Säuglingsschutz}} (Infant Defence Society) and started a high-profile campaign for [[breastfeeding]]. He died in Vienna in 1911.

== Honors ==
*1894&nbsp;&mdash; Honorary member of the [[Moscow]] Pediatric Society
*1905&nbsp;&mdash; Honorary member of the [[American Pediatric Society]]
*1905&nbsp;&mdash; Member of the [[Academy of Sciences|Academy of Science]], [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]]
*1906&nbsp;&mdash; Awarded title of ''[[Kaiserlich und königlich|kaiserlich-königlicher]] [[Geheimrat|Hofrat]]'' (Official Imperial and Royal Privy Councillor)
*1906&nbsp;&mdash; Member of the Medical Academy in Rome
*1909&nbsp;&mdash; Honorary member of the Belgian ''Liga de la Protection de la Première Enfance''

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |first=Barbara A. |last=Oberbauer |title=Theodor Escherich : Leben und Werk |series=FAC |volume=11 |issue=3 |publisher=Paul-Ehrlich-Gesellschaft für Chemotherapie e.V., Futuramed-Verlag |location=Munich |year=1992 |isbn=3-923599-66-8 |language=de }}
*{{cite book |editor-first=Theodor |editor-last=Hellbrügge  |display-editors=etal|title=Gründer und Grundlagen der Kinderheilkunde |series=Documenta pädiatrica |volume=4 |publisher=Hansisches Verlagskontor |location=Lübeck |year=1979 }} &mdash; also contains ''Grundlagen und Ziele der modernen Pädiatrie um die Jahrhundertwende'' by Theodor Escherich

==External links==
*[http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/1436.html Biography] on [[Who Named It?]]
*{{DNB-Portal|118685430}}
{{Escherichia coli}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Escherich, Theodor}}
[[Category:1857 births]]
[[Category:1911 deaths]]
[[Category:German pediatricians]]
[[Category:People from Ansbach]]
[[Category:Physicians from the Kingdom of Bavaria]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Graz]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Vienna]]
[[Category:University of Würzburg alumni]]
[[Category:University of Kiel alumni]]
[[Category:Humboldt University of Berlin alumni]]