Felix D Herelle

Herelle, Félix D’ 

Born Apr. 25, 1873, in Montreal; died Feb. 22, 1949, in Paris. Bacteriologist.

D’Herelle graduated from a university in Montreal. He worked in bacteriological laboratories in Guatemala, Mexico, France, and the Netherlands. From 1923 to 1927 he was director of the Bacteriological Service in Alexandria (Egypt). Beginning in 1928 he taught at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. (USA). From 1931 to 1934 he was at the Georgian Bacteriological Institute in Tbilisi, subsequently returning to Yale University. In 1917 he studied and described in detail the phenomenon of bacteriophagy, which was first discovered in 1898 by N. F. Gamaleia. D’Herelle expressed the opinion that this phenomenon was the result of the destructive action on bacteria of a special filtering agent (bacteriophage), which he proposed to use for the treatment and prevention of certain infectious diseases.

WORKS

Le bactériophage et son compertement, 2nd ed. Paris, 1926.
Le phénomène de la guérison dans les maladies infectieuses. Paris, 1938.
In Russian translation:
Bakteriofag i ego znachenie dlia immuniteta. Moscow-Leningrad, 1926.