Richard Pfeiffer belongs to the medical record as a figure whose work changed what could be treated.
The record lists Richard Pfeiffer as German physician and bacteriologist (1858–1945).
Richard Pfeiffer was born at Zduny in 1858. His recorded nationality is Germany. He trained at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
Anaesthesia, antisepsis and germ theory arrived within fifty years and made modern surgery possible for the first time.
His posts were held at University of Wrocław.
The recorded fields of work are bacteriology.
Medicine advances against a moving target, and its successes are counted in lives rather than papers.
That the work was done from Germany matters: hospitals, training and research funding are unevenly distributed, and they decide which questions can be asked.
Richard Pfeiffer died in 1945, aged 87. What survives is the change in practice, which is how a medical life is actually measured.
Achievements
- Held posts at University of Wrocław
- Fields: bacteriology
