the type of bacterium that now bears his name -- famed epidemiologist Theobald Smith isolated the bacteria in 1885 -- he ran the research program in which the discovery occurred . Smith and his colleagues named the bacteria salmonella in honor of their boss . Mental Floss : Margherita pizza , other foods named after people 3 . Parkinson 's disease James Parkinson was a busy fellow . While the English apothecary had a booming medical business , he also dabbled in geology , paleontology , and politics ; Parkinson even published a three-volume scientific study of fossils . Following a late-18th-century foray into British politics where he advocated a number of social causes and found himself briefly ensnared in an alleged plot to assassinate King George III , Parkinson turned his attention to medicine . Parkinson did some research on gout and peritonitis , but it was his landmark 1817 study `` An Essay on the Shaking Palsy '' that affixed his name to Parkinson 's disease . 4 . Huntington 's disease George Huntington was n't the most prolific researcher , but he made his papers count . In 1872 , a fresh-out-of-med-school Huntington published one of two
-LRB- Mental Floss -RRB- -- Having a disease named after you is a decidedly mixed bag . On the one hand , your scientific developments are forever commemorated . On the other hand , though , you 're stuck with the knowledge that no patient will ever be happy upon hearing your name . Who are the scientists and doctors behind some of our most famous diseases and conditions , though ? Here are a few of the physicians and their eponymous ailments : 1 . Crohn 's disease The inflammatory digestive disease could just have easily ended up with the name Ginzburg 's disease or Oppenheimer 's disease . In 1932 , three New York physicians named Burrill Bernard Crohn , Leon Ginzburg , and Gordon Oppenheimer published a paper describing a new sort of intestinal inflammation . Since Crohn 's name was listed first alphabetically , the condition ended up bearing his name . 2 . Salmonellosis Yes , the salmonella menace that haunts undercooked chicken is named after a person . Daniel Elmer Salmon was a veterinary pathologist who ran a USDA microorganism research program during the late 19th century . Although Salmon did n't actually discover