Theodor Maximilian Bilharz (23 March 1825 – 9 May 1862) was a German medical doctor who made pioneering discoveries in the field of parasitology. His contributions led to the foundation of tropical medicine. He is best remembered as the discoverer of the blood fluke Schistosoma haematobium, the causative parasite of bloody urine (haematuria) known since ancient times in Egypt. The parasite, as the cause of bladder cancer, is declared by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as Group 1 carcinogen. The infection is known by an eponymous term bilharzia or bilharziasis, as well as by schistosomiasis. Bilharz was born and educated in Sigmaringen, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Germany. After graduating in natural science and philosophy from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in 1845, he earned a medical degree from the University of Tübingen in 1849. In 1850, he followed his former teacher Wilhelm Griesinger to Egypt to work at the Qasr El Eyni Hospital in Cairo. He became the first autopsy performer there. From autopsies of children, he observed a variety of helminth parasites and discovered the tapeworm Hymenolepis nana and the flatworm Heterophyes heterophyes in 1851. Early in that year he found a male worm from a dead soldier. As a novel worm with two mouth-like suckers, he named it Distomum haematobium, the description of which was published by his mentor Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold in 1852. He further discovered that it was the eggs and not the flukes that caused the disease. He also unknowingly discovered another related blood fluke, later identified as Schistosoma mansoni, the most prevalent human helminth. While he was professor of anatomy at the Qasr El Eyni Medical School (later part of the University of Cairo), he contracted typhoid fever or typhus at Massawa during an expedition organised by Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He died of it at age 37. The United Arab Republic established Theodor Bilharz Research Institute in his honour in 1962.
Early life and education Theodor Bilharz was born in Sigmaringen, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Germany. His father Josef Antony Bilharz (1788–1877), a councilor of the exchequer, was an advisor to the Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern. His mother Elisa Fehr (1800–1889) was from a Swiss family of Zollikhofer. He was the eldest of nine children, four of who died at infancy. He studied at the local school in Sigmaringen and completed his secondary education (Fürstlich Sigmaringer Gymnasium) in 1843 with the highest score. He developed keen interest in geology, biology and poetry. His surviving poem Die Trane des Seraphs (The Travels of the Seraphs) was composed during his school days. He scored the highest in his class in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. At age 14, he wrote a drama and translated an ancient comic epic Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Batrachomyomachia). He soon developed a passion for natural science mainly from the library and specimens he inherited from his great uncle Kaspar Zollikofer von Altenklingen, a reputed Swiss biologist. In the winter semester of 1843, Bilharz entered the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität (University of Freiburg) in Freiburg im Breisgau and took up natural science and philosophy. After completing his degree in 1845, he followed his anatomy teacher Friedrich Arnold to the University of Tübingen where he enrolled in medicine. In 1846, he won the medical faculty's prize competition for his dissertation on "The microscopic characters of the blood of invertebrate animals." With the prize money he bought a compound microscope (Oberhaus microscope) that he used throughout his career. He became closely associated with Wilhelm Griesinger, a neurologist and psychiatrist who was working as an internist at Tübingen. Bilharz passed the state exam in 1849 to obtain a license as medical doctor. Some sources state that he graduated in 1848, and was awarded the medical degree without requiring an examination due to his superior performance. This information may not be reliable as better biographical sources say he passed the exam in 1849. After graduation, he was immediately appointed as an assistant to Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold at the University of Freiburg. Von Siebold became his major influence in parasitology and later discoveries. Bilharz initially planned to do parasitology research in South America as he said: "The path to become a professor maybe shorter via America than via Tübingen." The next year, a recently appointed professor of anatomy at Freiburg, Georg Ludwig Kobelt recruited him as his prosector.
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