Julius Donath (internist)

Julius Donath ( November 11, 1870 in Vienna ; September 1, 1950 in ibid.) Was an Austrian doctor, internist and university professor.

Live and act

Donath was the son of the businessman Leopold Ludwig Jacob Donath (1836-1883) from Prostějov and his wife Ida Donath, née Roth (1848-1921). He had a younger sister, Sophie Hahn, née Donath (1878–1942).

After graduating from the Franz-Joseph-Gymnasium in 1889, he began studying human medicine at the medical faculty of the University of Vienna . He finished his studies with his doctorate as doctor medicinae in 1895. Donath u. a. at the I. Medical University Clinic with Hermann Nothnagel . Here he initially practiced as an assistant doctor in the internal department of the Vienna General Policlinic under the direction of Julius Mannaberg (1860–1941). From 1898 to 1907 again as an assistant under Nothnagel. This was followed in 1905 by his habilitation at the medical faculty of the University of Vienna for internal medicine with a thesis on paroxysmal cold hemoglobinuria , a disease from the autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) that occurs specifically in childhood.

In 1910 Donath was appointed primary physician at the second medical clinic at the newly built hospital of the Viennese merchants' union in Vienna-Döbling , where he worked until 1936. In 1927 he took up an extraordinary professorship . Furthermore, from 1910 until February 1938, he also took on the job as a consultant doctor for the health insurance company for commercial employees.

After the annexation of Austria , Donath was withdrawn from his Venia legendi on April 22, 1938 due to his Jewish origins and was admitted as a so-called “patient handler” for the exclusive treatment of Jewish patients. In October 1938 he took over the management of the internal department at the hospital of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde ( Rothschild hospital ). He survived the time of the National Socialist dictatorship in Vienna, protected by his marriage to a non-Jewish woman, Anna Donath née Kindler (1883–1962).

Together with Karl Landsteiner , Donath described an antibody from the class of IgG antibodies (incomplete antibodies) which, as autoantibodies , are directed against the P blood group antigen on the erythrocyte membrane and which temporarily lead to 'paroxysmal cold hemoglobinuria' when exposed to cold. The occurrence of Donath-Landsteiner antibodies in adults is associated with chronic syphilis infection and in children with acute viral infections such as measles and chickenpox . They can be detected serologically with the Donath-Landsteiner test, a laboratory clinical test (detection of Donath-Landsteiner antibodies that occur in autoimmune hemolytic anemia of the Donath-Landsteiner type).

Cold agglutinins are mostly IgM autoantibodies (complete antibodies), with the exception of the above, against erythrocyte membrane surface antigens, which lead to agglutination of the erythrocytes at low temperatures (10–15 ° C) (reversible with increasing temperatures). As IgM antibodies, they can activate the complement system and subsequently trigger hemolysis.

Works (selection)

• Contributions to the teaching of paroxysmal cold hemoglobinuria. In: Journal of Clinical Medicine 52, 1904
• Further observations on paroxysmal hemoglobinuria. Central Journal for Bacteriology, Parasite Science and Infectious Diseases 45, 1907 (together with Karl Landsteiner )
• About cold hemoglobinuria. In: Results of Hygiene, Bacteriology, Immunity Research and Experimental Therapy. Continuation of the annual report on the results of immunity research 7, 1925 (together with Karl Landsteiner)
• About diseases of the kidney envelopes (perinephritis and paranephritis). WMW 75, 1925
• About albuminuria and its importance for prognosis and therapy. Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift 38, 1925
• Studies on chondrodystrophic dwarfism. In: Vienna Archive for Internal Medicine 10, 1925.

literature

• Daniela Angetter, Birgit Nemec, Herbert Posch, Christiane Druml, Paul Weindling: Structures and networks: Medicine and science in Vienna 1848–1955. V&R unipress GmbH, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-7370-0916-4 , pp. 713-714 ( [2] books.google.de)
• Isidor Fischer (ed.): Biographical lexicon of the outstanding doctors of the last fifty years. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin / Vienna 1932. Volume I, p. 326

Web links

• Julius DONATH - Memorial Book of the University of Vienna [3]
• Photograph by Julius Donath from the archive of the University of Vienna [4]
• Medical History, News 8, Displaced 1938 JULIUS DONATH (1870–1950): DISTRIBUTED 1938 [5]

Individual evidence

1. ^ Donath, Julius (1870–1950), internist. Institute for Modern and Contemporary History Research. Austrian Biographical Lexicon from 1815 (2nd revised edition, online [1] )