Pfeiffer, Richard Friedrich Johann

Born Mar. 27, 1858, in Zduny, now in Poland; died Sept. 15, 1945, in Bad Landeck, Germany (now Lądek Zdrój, Poland). German bacteriologist, immunologist, and hygienist.

Pfeiffer studied under and later worked with R. Koch (1887–91). He was a professor at the Institute of Contagious Diseases in Berlin (1894), the Institute of Hygiene at Königsberg (1899), and the University of Breslau (1909–26). His principal works were devoted to the study of immunity, general hygiene, and such diseases as influenza, malaria, typhoid fever, cholera, and the plague. In 1894, Pfeiffer, together with the Russian physician V. I. Isaev, discovered the bacteriolysis of cholera vibrions under the influence of specific immune serum. Pfeiffer showed that lysins are also formed in killed cultures.