An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

EHRENBERG, Christian Gottfried

2 entries
  • 11452

Organisation, Systematik und geographische Verhältniss der Infusionsthierchen. Zwei Vorträge, in der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin gehalten in den Jahren 1828 und 1830.

Berlin: Druckerei der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften , 1830.

In this work Ehrenberg first published his classification of infusioria, including the naming of bacteria for the first time. The work published two papers based on his expeditions. The first, read on January 10, 1828, was "Die geographische Verbreitung der Infusionsthierschen in Nord-Afrika und West-Asien, bebachtet auf Hemprich und Enrenbergs Reisen". This was the work in which Ehrenberg first published his classification of infusoria, and named bacteria. In it he set out his findings from travels through north Africa and Arabia in 1820-1825, during which he accumulated some 34,000 zoological and 46,000 botanical specimens. Considering the enormous amount of material accumulated, it must have taken Ehrenberg a few years to organize and summarize some of the findings.

Ehrenberg's second paper, read on March 4 and 18, 1830, was "Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Organisation der Infusorien und ihrer geographischen Verbreitung, besonders in Sibirien." In this lectures he recounted findings during his travels through Russia, which were patronized by Alexander von Humboldt, and financed by Czar Nicholas I.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.



Subjects: BACTERIOLOGY › Bacteria, Classification of, MICROBIOLOGY, Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientsts, ZOOLOGY › Protistology (formerly Protozoology)
  • 111
  • 2469

Die Infusionsthierchen als vollkommene Organismen. 1 vol. and atlas of 64 hand-colored engraved plates.

Leipzig: L. Voss, 1838.

In this monumental work in folio format Ehrenberg extended Otto Friedrich Müller’s bacteriological classification. Like Müller, he made no distinction between protozoa and bacteria, classing them both as infusoria. His classification included Bacterium, which he described and named in 1828, and published in 1830, Vibrio, Spirillum and Spirochaeta. The fine hand-colored plates in this book were drawn by Ehrenberg himself. Includes (p. 80) first description of B. subtilis.

Ehrenberg's book was translated into French with the atlas in reduced  8vo format and condensed to 8 uncolored plates, as Traité pratique du microscope, et de son emploi dans l'étude des corps organisés par le docteur L. Mandl; suivi de Recherches sur l'organisation des animaux infusoires par D.-C.-G. Ehrenberg. Accompagné de quatorze planches. (Paris: J.-B. Baillière, 1839). Digital facsimile of the 1839 translation from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.



Subjects: BACTERIOLOGY › BACTERIA (mostly pathogenic; sometimes indexed only to genus) › Gram-Negative Bacteria › Spirillium, BACTERIOLOGY › BACTERIA (mostly pathogenic; sometimes indexed only to genus) › Gram-Negative Bacteria › Vibrio , BACTERIOLOGY › BACTERIA (mostly pathogenic; sometimes indexed only to genus) › Spirochetes, BACTERIOLOGY › Bacteria, Classification of, MICROBIOLOGY, ZOOLOGY › Protistology (formerly Protozoology)