I have a new favorite publication. During my recent week of research in New York City, I spent many happy hours poring over nineteenth century copies of The British Medical Journal. I found it so diverting—literally—that it was difficult to… Read More
The strain of bacteria that causes epidemic typhus is called Rickettsia prowazeki, named after the scientists who identified it and its mode of transmission, Howard Taylor Ricketts (1871 – 1910) and Stanislaus Josef Mathias von Prowazek (1875 – 1915). Both men died of typhus.