Aloys Pollender

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Aloys Pollender (1869)
Pollender's signature
Pollender's publication on "The essence and treatment of anthrax" 1855

Franz Anton Aloys Pollender (rarely Alois; baptized on January 26, 1799 in Barmen , today Wuppertal ; † August 16, 1879 there ) was a German doctor . He discovered the anthrax .

life and work

Aloys Pollender was baptized on January 26th, 1799 according to the baptismal register of the Catholic parish in Barmen. However, he himself gives the year 1800 in his curriculum vitae, which is attached to his doctoral thesis . His father, Gabriel Pollender († 1823), was a municipal official and lived around 1799 with his mother Maria-Anna († before 1824) in Barmen, later in Kleve , Monschau and Neuss . Pollender attended grammar school in Kleve and was considered a gifted pupil. His father also taught him French and Italian.

The frequent transfers and the longstanding illness ( alcoholism ) of the father had a lasting influence on Pollender. After the French withdrew in 1815, the father initially found no further employment, so that the family ran out of funds and Pollender could not continue attending grammar school, he went to apprenticeship with a pharmacist. Pollender did not lose sight of the goal of becoming a doctor, with the help of private teachers he completed his high school quota and began his studies at the University of Bonn in 1820 . In 1823 his father died of consumption and Pollender finished his studies in 1824 and obtained his doctorate in the same year. Although he worked as a Famulus , which enabled him to have a low income, he still owed the college fees. Pollender suffered from poverty throughout his life; he must have been a capable and popular student that he could still finish his studies.

Due to his debts, Pollender was soon forced to open his own practice, in May 1826 he had opened one in Wipperfürth . Yet he did not achieve the prosperity of his siblings. For one it was due to his self-sacrificing work towards the sick - it is reported that he often forgot to write bills. On the other hand, he bought the best and most expensive microscopes for his research. He owed the college fees until after 1830, when the district administrator helped him and appointed him doctor for the poor , which meant that he was entitled to an annual compensation of 60 thalers.

His research, which he carried out extensively in addition to his work as a doctor, was not limited to the medical field alone, but also extended to the field of biology. Pollender also received his first honor for his research work in the biological field when he was awarded the Cothenius Prize by the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1847 for his work on the anatomical study of flax. This work was the result of a task set by the Academy in 1845 for the year 1847: “Anatomical investigation of the flax, especially the bast fiber of the same, at different times of its development, with regard to its quality, combined with an investigation of the chemical and mechanical changes, which he suffers during roasting and which the bast fiber of the same during processing into canvas and the canvas into paper ”.

He had been observing the effects of the mysterious disease anthrax ( Bacillus anthracis ) since 1841. He deepened his studies in 1849; the work on anthrax was not printed until 1855. In the final part of his work he writes:

“I regret that I have had to limit my research on anthrax blood from a microchemical point of view almost exclusively to the general chemical behavior of the blood cells against a few reagents, and that professional duties have not given me the time to expand them further, like the blood of one microscopic-mechanical analysis. "

Although his work did not lead to a final decision about the anthrax pathogen, he established the history of epidemic bacteriology. Pollender turned his research attention to the disease bacillus. In recognition of the discovery, he was awarded the title of Medical Councilor. The Zurich and Munich pathologist Otto Bollinger confirmed the claim of the first discovery in 1872 .

Pollender published his last known scientific work in Bonn in 1868. It was a 47-page comprehensive study of the origin, development, structure and chemical behavior of pollen .

At the age of seventy, Pollender entered into a morganatic marriage with the worker Therese Bausmann, 42 years his junior. He was no longer socially respected and he was forced to leave Wipperfürth, which had become his home, despite his age and his meritorious work. He pulled over Dusseldorf to Brussels to his siblings, where he also did not stay longer and he moved with his wife and son now born in July 1872 in his native Barmen. He did not find the strength to be a successful doctor here either, and a major inheritance from his brother in Brussels did not last long. Pollender died penniless in August 1879. His wife and child were taken in with his sister in Brussels. However, his son died in childhood.

souvenir

Memorial sign

On July 28, 1929, a memorial plaque was unveiled at Hochstrasse 22 in Wipperfürth . It contains the inscription:

“In this house in 1849 Dr. Aloys Pollender (1800–1879) the anthrax bacillus "

In Wipperfürth , in neighboring Lindlar and in Neuss , three streets bear his name.

literature

  • Hans Kraus: Alois Pollender . In Wuppertal biographies 1st episode (= contributions to the history and local history of the Wuppertal. Volume 4). Born, Wuppertal 1958, pp. 65-72.

Web links

Commons : Aloys Pollender  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Entry: Latin 1799 January 26th Aloijsius Franciscus Antonius Hubertus Gertrudis. Parentes: Gabriel Pollender ex Neuss et Maria Anna Sijbilla Langerbein ex Heinsberg, ambo catholici, copulati in Neuss. Patrini: Levans Ferdinandus Theodorus Josephus Langerbein advocatus es Heinsberg pater matris. Testis Gertrudis Klier.
  2. Harnack, 1900, Vol. II, p. 505
  3. Microscopic and microchemical examination of anthrax blood, as well as about the nature and cure of anthrax. In: Quarterly for judicial and public medicine. Vol. 8 (1855), pp. 103-114, here p. 113 ( digitized version ).