Filippo Pacini

Italian microbiologist

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June 11, 2026

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Filippo Pacini was an Italian anatomist and microbiologist. He is credited with being the first to observe and name the bacterium responsible for cholera, which he called "cholerigenic vibrios" in 1854. This discovery predated Robert Koch's work on the cholera bacterium by nearly 30 years.1

Pacini is also known for his work on sensory nerve endings. He described the Pacinian corpuscle, an oval capsule that terminates some sensory nerve fibers, particularly in the skin, and is sensitive to pressure.2

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cholera
Study of the disease
The Italian microbiologist Filippo Pacini had already seen the bacterium and named it “cholerigenic vibrios” in 1854 (a fact of which Koch is assumed not to have been aware). The principal mode of cholera transmission, contaminated water, had also been described previously—by the British anesthesiologist John Snow in…
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The Italian microbiologist Filippo Pacini had already seen the bacterium and named it “cholerigenic vibrios” in 1854 (a fact of which Koch is assumed not to have been aware). The principal mode of cholera transmission, contaminated water, had also been described previously—by the British anesthesiologist John Snow in…
Read More