Biography

He was born in Chemnitz

Chemnitz

Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...

, Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

 of German Jewish decent, he came to England at the age of seven. His father moved to the branch of a German yarn firm in Little Germany

Little Germany

Little Germany can refer to*Little Germany, New York, also known as Kleindeutschland, a German neighborhood in New York that rapidly declined after the General Slocum disaster in 1904...

, Bradford

Bradford

Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...

, where there was a German community. Friederich was educated at Bradford Grammar School

Bradford Grammar School

Bradford Grammar School is a co-educational, independent school in Frizinghall, Bradford, West Yorkshire. Headmaster, Stephen Davidson is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference . The school was founded in 1548 and granted its Charter by King Charles II in 1662...

 and trained at Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

. He set up a general practice in Bradford in 1896 and held a Saturday morning surgery, free of charge, at Bradford Royal Infirmary

Bradford Royal Infirmary

Bradford Royal infirmary is a large teaching hospital in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, and is operated by Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS trust. The infirmary is affiliated with Leeds School of Medicine....

.

Cutaneous anthrax

Anthrax

Anthrax is an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects both humans and other animals...

 (wool sorter's disease) had become a serious problem in the woollen mills of Bradford, the use of alpaca

Alpaca

An alpaca is a domesticated species of South American camelid. It resembles a small llama in appearance.Alpacas are kept in herds that graze on the level heights of the Andes of southern Peru, northern Bolivia, Ecuador, and northern Chile at an altitude of to above sea level, throughout the year...

 and mohair

Mohair

Mohair usually refers to a silk-like fabric or yarn made from the hair of the Angora goat. The word "mohair" was adopted into English before 1570 from the Arabic: mukhayyar, a type of haircloth, literally 'choice', from khayyara, 'he chose'. Mohair fiber is approximately 25-45 microns in...

 from Central Asia was the source of the disease. To counter the problem, Bradford established a Pathological and Bacteriological Laboratory and Eurich was appointed bacteriologist. The laboratory was originally located in the Technical College but in 1905 the Bradford Anthrax Investigation Board relocated the laboratory to Morley Street, where Eurich became the bacteriologist to the board. With Eurich's expertise in the field of bacteriology

Bacteriology

Bacteriology is the study of bacteria. This subdivision of microbiology involves the identification, classification, and characterization of bacterial species...

the Board instituted other medical measures against anthrax and, in 1918, built a Wool Disinfecting Station in Liverpool.

On Friederich Eurich's death in February 1945, the Yorkshire Observer recorded that he "did so much to conquer the disease of anthrax and his contributions in the cause of medicine were so outstanding."