Klebs, Edwin

Klebs, Edwin

(klāps), 1834–1913, German-American pathologist, b. Prussia. He was an assistant of Rudolf Virchow and professor of pathology at Zürich (1872–92) and from 1896 at Rush Medical College, Chicago. He is known for his many original observations on the pathology of infectious diseases. He worked on tuberculosis, malaria, anthrax, and syphilis and described the diphtheria bacillus and typhoid bacillus although he did not demonstrate them to be the causes of these diseases. The diphtheria bacillus is also known as the Klebs-Löffler bacillus.