Salmonella 1885-1962

Abstract

Salmonellae first came into prominence in the 1880's, soon after the isolation of the "hog cholera bacillus" by Salmon and Smith (1). The genus name was given to the group in honor of Dr. D. E. Salmon, and the first orga¬ nism of the group isolated was named Salmo¬ nella chlerae-suis. This organism was believed to be the cause of hog cholera, but it was shown later that the disease was caused by a virus and that S. cholerae-suis was an important second¬ ary invader. During the next two decades, salmonellae were found by numerous investiga¬ tors in a variety of diseases in animals. Salmo¬ nella abortus-equi was isolated in 1893 from the vagina of an aborting mare by Kilbourne (2). The causative organism of "fowl typhoid," Salmonella gallinarum^w as found in 1889 (3). A few years later, Loeffler (4) isolated the "mouse typhoid bacillus" which was later given the name Salmonella typhirrmriv/m. In some instances, however, errors in etiology were made, for example when Nocard (5) iso¬ lated a member of the Salmonella group, later called "Salmonella psittacosis" from cases of psittacosis during an outbreak in Paris in 1893