Alfred Kohn

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Alfred Kohn around 1900

Alfred Kohn (born February 22, 1867 in Libin, Czech Libyně, a district of Lubenec in the Karlsbad region , then Austria-Hungary , now the Czech Republic ; † January 15, 1959 in Prague ) was an Austro-Czech histologist . He separated the parathyroid glands from the thyroid gland, separated the adrenal medulla from the adrenal cortex and assigned it to the sympathetic nervous system, and separated the paraganglia from other cell clusters , especially with studies on ontogenesis and comparative anatomy .

His student Maximilian Watzka (1905–1981), later director of the Anatomical Institute of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz , published a detailed biography . A typewriter manuscript with memories of the doctor Rose Scheuer-Karpin (1912–2013) is available from the Leo Baeck Institute . A Czech biography comes from the Prague anatomists Miloš Grim (* 1941) and Ondřej Naňka (* 1972) (see literature).

Libyně

Life

Kohn was one of eight children of a small trader and innkeeper. The place of the birth house, number 51 in the village Libyně, lies fallow today. After attending the Old Town High School in Prague, Kohn studied medicine at the German Karl Ferdinand University in Prague. In 1891 he became assistant to Siegmund Mayer at the Histological Institute. In 1895 he passed the state examination and was promoted to Dr. med. PhD. Four years later, after extensive trips to the Trieste Zoological Station , among others , he qualified as a professor in histology with a thesis on the adrenal glands of sharks . In 1911 he was Mayer's successor as a full professor . Not only doctors came to his lectures, but also students of natural sciences and young artists. His universal education and knowledge of the classical languages ​​Greek, Latin and Hebrew - to which Czech and French were added in addition to German - would have enabled him to make excursions into world literature. "The lectures were spiced with quotes from the 'Faust' and sometimes helped to consolidate the imparted specialist knowledge through their associative power."

In 1937, Kohn retired . Watzka, who had qualified as a professor in 1934, took only representative, then the full-time professorship . In 1939 the "remaining Czech Republic" was occupied and annexed by the National Socialist German Reich . Kohn “enjoyed ... a little more closed season. ... He had to wear the notorious yellow star to identify himself as a Jew, but still lived in his old apartment at Ječná 9, with his housekeeper, the faithful Anna. ”In 1943 he was interned in the Theresienstadt concentration camp . He survived thanks to his appreciative National Socialist colleagues like Watzka and the gynecologist Hermann Knaus . “Watzka was attached to his old professor like a father, but he was also an early member of the Sudeten German Freikorps . So he accompanied Kohn to Theresienstadt, probably in SS uniform, and ensured good accommodation and decent treatment. ”With the arrival of the Red Army in May 1945, Kohn was released. The 'faithful Anna', Anna Zítková, Aryan , had the apartment rewritten to her after his internment and was “already waiting for him”. When the apartment of the former professor at the German university was to be confiscated and his old-age pension was to be withdrawn, the husband of a former student who had been promoted to ministerial intervened.

Kohn worried about Anna's condition after his death. Through a friend, Ernst, “this problem also came before the Council of Ministers. His proposal was: marriage. Ernst took on the delicate job of the courier who was supposed to deliver the message. He then told me how the professor, without hesitation, smiling, with only feigned resignation, approved the proposal. Anna had come to Professor Kohn in 1912, still young, to run his household. Successful, charming, unmarried, he attracted the admiration of women. ... Anna lived in her smaller world, took care of the apartment, the well-being of the professor and relieved him of all practical worries - for decades. That's how she lived and probably loved the professor too. ”After Kohn's death, friends found a small and modern apartment for Anna. But the police had to open the apartment at 9 Ječná. “Anna was dead on the floor. Life had lost its meaning for her. Now she is buried next to her husband in the Jewish cemetery in Prague-Strašnice. "

Tomb of the couple in Prague

plant

Epithelial bodies

Even before his state examination and shortly afterwards, Kohn published two fundamental papers on the parathyroid glands . They were discovered in 1880 by the Swedish doctor Ivar Sandström (1852–1889) and called glandulae parathyreoideae . The French physiologist Marcel Eugène Émile Gley (1857–1930) recognized their vital necessity . They were thought to be organs with ontogeny and function similar to that of the thyroid . Kohn disagreed and therefore suggested a new name: “Since in the course of the investigation the view became more and more firmly established in me that the so often claimed identity between 'parathyroid' and thyroid was still very much in need of proof, I preferred it instead of that ... to use the non-prejudicial name “epithelial corpuscles” on the assumption of this identity . I call the organ in question 'outer epithelial body' in order to distinguish it from a similar, described in the second part of this work, the 'inner epithelial body' of the thyroid . ”In 1898, Kohn and the pathologist Rudolf found convincing evidence of the difference Maresch (1868–1936): In a child who completely lacked the thyroid gland, the epithelial cells were normal.

Adrenal gland

A question similar to that for the parathyroid glands in relation to the thyroid gland arose for the adrenal glands. Since 1836 it was known that they consisted of two parts, the bark and the pulp. Kohn examined them through the range of vertebrates from fish to mammals. What the adrenal glands have, he wrote in the Prager Medicinische Wochenschrift in 1898 , is the cortex: “A closer examination of the mammalian adrenal gland directly confirmed the view obtained from comparative anatomical studies that the actual adrenal gland is an epithelial organ, that is, in mammals, only through the bark substance appears represented. ... What was previously called “ marrow cells ” is nothing more than a special type of cell belonging to the sympathetic nervous system, previously unknown in mammals . ... I want to call them chromaffine sympathetic cells because of one of their most striking properties, the ... affinity to chromium salt solutions. ”As an epithelial organ, the adrenal cortex is“ similar to the epithelial cells in the vicinity of the thyroid ”, similar to the adenohypophysis and the thyroid. "According to its genesis , the medullary substance belongs to the sympathetic nervous system as well as to its definitive, tissue character ."

The “affinity to chromium salt solutions” is based on the occurrence of high concentrations of the catecholamines noradrenaline and adrenaline in the adrenal medulla. They react with oxidizing agents such as chromates to form yellow-brown products. The word coining “chromaffin” was influential. In 1902 Kohn repeated: “In the vertebrate organism a new, special type of tissue has to be distinguished, the chromaffin tissue. Its specific component is the chromaffin cell. Chromaffin cells and sympathetic cells develop from common equipment. " For physiological importance, he pointed to" the first knowledge of a most remarkable effect of chromaffin substance "out of George Oliver and Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer discovered the history of catecholamine research issuing Increase in blood pressure when injecting adrenal medulla extracts.

Paraganglia

The chromaffin cells were not limited to the adrenal medulla. Kohn found clusters of chromaffin cells to be widespread in the body. He called them Paraganglia :

"In this way I came to the point of creating a new type of cell - the chromaffin cell, a new tissue form - the chromaffin tissue, a new organ type - the chromaffin organs or paraganglia ."

“In the vertebrate organism , a new, special tissue system has to be distinguished, which has so far remained unrecognized or unrecognized. These are the paraganglia or chromaffin bodies that are genetically and anatomically linked to the sympathetic nervous system . ... Nothing reliable is known about the physiological significance of the chromaffin organs. Intravenous injections of their extracts increase arterial blood pressure. ... Tumors can arise from chromaffin tissue , the cells of which are chromaffin again. Chromium affinity and blood pressure-increasing potency should be used more often as diagnostic criteria for retroperitoneal tumors. "

The paraganglion includes - in addition to, for example, the carotid body and the aortic glomera - the paraganglion aorticum abdominale . It is also called the Zuckerkandl organ after Emil Zuckerkandl , then director of the Anatomical Institute of the University of Vienna . Zuckerkandl thought the cluster of cells was a lymph node . It was only Kohn that brought him the correct diagnosis. Zuckerkandl kept this silent. "This behavior of a satiated councilor towards a young lecturer seriously offended Kohn and he often regretted later that he had saved Zuckerkandl from publishing these organs as special lymph nodes, as he actually wanted to do."

additional

The endocrine glands remained Kohn's center of interest . If, in the Zuckenkandl case, he recognized a banal lymph node as a paraganglion, conversely, he unmasked an alleged endocrine glandula insularis cervicalis as banal fatty tissue. He did research on the pituitary and gonads . He demonstrated that “interstitial cells” in the ovaries' suspension apparatus corresponded to the Leydig interstitial cells of the testicle and were not paraganglia.

He contributed to the finding that the Schwann cells come from the neuroectoderm .

Around 1910 at the Prague Institute, an axolotl was accidentally fed a piece of thyroid gland. Kohn observed that the animal turned gray and began to crawl out of the water while the gills withered. He suspected a connection and asked the student J. Frederick Gudernatsch (1881–1962), later professor of anatomy at Cornell University , experiments with tadpoles . This is how the role of the thyroid gland in metamorphosis was discovered. “It should only be emphasized here that this fundamental discovery was a very product of Kohn's own mind, even if the external success fell to someone else. Kohn, who was otherwise completely alien to ambition, later hurt a lot and he often talked about how generously he gave away his pearls back then. "

recognition

In 1901, Kohn received the Goldberger Prize of the Society of Doctors in Vienna for the best theoretical and medical work of the last three years , of which he later became an honorary member. He was an honorary member of the German Society for Endocrinology . In 1932 he became a member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina . On November 30, 1938, it was deleted with the note "Membership deleted (non-Aryans)". At the 400th anniversary of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena in 1958, he received an honorary doctorate . The Czechoslovakia awarded him the Order of work . The Austrian anatomist Peter Böck dedicated his book on the Paraganglia (from English) “to the memory of Alfred Kohn (1867-1959), Austrian histologist from Charles University in Prague, who introduced the term 'chromaffin' and the system of (chromaffinen ) Defined 'paraganglionic cells'. "

Literature with notes

Blaschko got his information about the Mainz pharmacologist Erich Muscholl from Maximilian Watzka.

Böck's brief biography is based on Watzka 1959 (see below)

  • Ludmila Hlaváčková, Petr Svobodný: Alfred Kohn. In: Biographical Lexicon of the German Medical Faculty in Prague 1883-1945. Karolinum, Prague 1998, p. 116, ISBN 80-7184-521-3 .

The manuscript is an impressive document in language and content of life in former Bohemia in the first half of the 20th century. Scheuer-Karpin tells of the beginning of his studies in Prague in 1930:

“So there were a few days to do something before work should begin. ... So we traveled to Dresden overnight on a slow train , which was possible without any special border difficulties. ...
We enjoyed the cultural offerings of the beautiful city to the full. In the opera there was ' Salome ' and Richard Strauss himself was the conductor. Of course, you couldn't miss that. However, the expected impression of the much-praised work failed to materialize on me. I couldn't help but find the highly dramatic parts, performed with skill and pathos, funny. In the evening after the performance, in the shower room of the youth hostel, the rain veils in the showers reminded me of Salome's dance, I danced and sang her bloodthirsty demand for Jochanan's head and Anni arched with laughter - the last thing about her is laughter Remembered.
The next evening we saw Shakespeare's 'Tempest' in the playhouse. We had the cheapest standing room, right at the front on the side of the highest gallery , so that we could look almost vertically from above onto the stage and its technical secrets in the background, which were invisible from the parquet. The efforts of the stage workers and their machinery to create a shipwreck on storm-lashed waves distracted me not a little from the wonderful language of the poet and the art of the performers. "
  • Scheuer-Karpin: Prof. Alfred Kohn † . In: The German health system . 14, 1959, p. 501.
  • František Tvaroh: K 90 narozeninám prof. Dr Alfreda Kohna. In: Časopis lékařů českých 96, 1957, pp. 355–356.
  • Max Watzka: Alfred Kohn † . In: Anatomischer Anzeiger . 106, 1959, pp. 449-457.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Watzka 1959, p. 450
  2. ↑ a b Naňka and Grim 2008.
  3. ↑ A. Mayet: On the death of Professor Watzka. In: Ärzteblatt Rheinland-Pfalz 1981, pp. 289–290.
  4. ↑ Maximilian Watzka. In: Stefan Albrecht, Jiří Malíř, Ralph Melville: The "Sudeten German Historiography" 1918 - 1960. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, pp. 270–271. ISBN 978-3-486-58374-8 .
  5. ^ Under Kaiser und König and afterwards, 1912-1959 on the website of the Federal Institute for Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe. Retrieved April 15, 2013.
  6. ↑ Rose Scheuer-Karpin on the German-Rex-Freunde website . Retrieved April 15, 2013.
  7. ^ Hlaváčková and Svobodný 1998.
  8. ^ Alfred Kohn: The adrenal gland of the Selachian together with contributions to the knowledge of the morphology of the vertebral adrenal gland in general. In: Archive for microscopic anatomy 53, 1899, pp. 281-312.
  9. ↑ Scheuer-Karpin after 1987, p. 24.
  10. ↑ Scheuer-Karpin after 1987, p. 19.
  11. ↑ a b Blaschko 1984.
  12. ↑ Scheuer-Karpin after 1987, pp. 19-20.
  13. ↑ Scheuer-Karpin after 1987, p. 20.
  14. ↑ Scheuer-Karpin after 1987, pp. 21-23.
  15. ↑ a b Alfred Kohn: Studies on the thyroid. I. In: Archive for microscopic anatomy 44, 1895, pp. 366-421.
  16. ↑ Alfred Kohn: Studies on the thyroid. II. In: Archive for microscopic anatomy 48, 1897, pp. 398-429.
  17. ^ Rudolf Maresch in: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815-1950. Retrieved April 9, 2013.
  18. ↑ Stephen W. Carmichael: The history of the adrenal medulla . In: Reviews in Neurosciences . 2, 1989, pp. 83-99. doi : 10.1515 / REVNEURO.1989.2.2.83 .
  19. ^ Alfred Kohn: About the adrenal gland . In: Prager Medicinische Wochenschrift . 23, 1898, pp. 193-195.
  20. ^ Alfred Kohn: The chromaffine tissue . In: Results of anatomy and history of development . 12, 1902, pp. 253-348.
  21. ↑ Alfred Kohn: The Paraganglia. In: Archive for microscopic anatomy 62, 1903, pp. 263–365.
  22. ↑ Watzka 1959, p. 451.
  23. ^ Alfred Kohn: Glandula insularis cervicalis? In: Anatomischer Anzeiger 47, 1914, pp. 479-480.
  24. ↑ Alfred Kohn: About "Leydig's intermediate cells" in the hilar of the human ovary. (Extra-landular interstitial cells.). . In: Endocrinology . 1, 1928, pp. 3-10.
  25. ^ Alfred Kohn: About the vaginal cells (marginal cells) of peripheral ganglion cells. In: Anatomischer Anzeiger 30, 1907, pp. 154–159.
  26. ↑ Frederick Gudernatsch in the archives of Weill Medical College at Cornell University . (PDF; 44 kB) Retrieved April 10, 2013.
  27. ↑ FJ Gudernatsch: Feeding experiments on tadpoles. In: American Journal of Anatomy 15, 1914, pp. 431-479.
  28. ↑ Watzka 1959, p. 453.
  29. ^ Sybille Gerstengarbe, Heidrun Hallmann, Wieland Berg: The Leopoldina in the Third Reich. In: Eduard Seidler and others (eds.): The nation's elite in the Third Reich - The relationship between academies and their scientific environment to National Socialism. German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina eV (Ed.), Halle (Saale) 1995, pp. 167-212, here p. 174. ISBN 3-335-00409-4 .
  30. ↑ Böck 1982.
personal data
SURNAME Kohn, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian doctor and histologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Libin
DATE OF DEATH January 15, 1959
Place of death Prague