Yersinia pestis is a species of
bacterium in the family
Enterobacteriaceae, genus
Yersinia; it is the infectious agent of
bubonic plague. It was discovered simultaneously by
Shibasaburo Kitasato and
Alexandre Yersin[?] in
1894.
The bacillus was originally called Pasteurella pestis, and was renamed after Alexandre Yersin[?].
see also Great Plague