The Frederick Griffith reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
(provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Frederick Griffith

Sponsor with the world's largest charity for orphans

Frederick Griffith was a medical officer in London. 1928, in what is today known as Griffith's experiment, he discovered a transforming principle, which is today known as DNA.

Griffith was, in fact, looking for a way to fight pneumonia in the epidemics after World War I. The discovery was made in what should have been a negative control, accidentially heated to 60°C instead of 100°C, killing the pneumococcus bacteria but not destroying their DNA. This scientist changed genetics.