Theodor Escherich

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Theodor Escherich around 1900

Theodor Escherich (born November 29, 1857 in Ansbach ; † February 15, 1911 in Vienna ) was a German - Austrian pediatrician , bacteriologist and professor at the universities of Graz and Vienna. He discovered the bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli) , which was named after him in 1919, and determined its properties.

Live and act

Family and education

Birthplace of Theodor Escherich on Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Platz ( No. 10) in Ansbach
The professors at the Medical University of Vienna, chalk drawing by Olga Prager, Vienna 1908–1910. In the Dean's Office of the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna. Edmund von Neusser , Siegmund Exner-Ewarten , Isidor Schnabel , Ferdinand Hochstetter , Alfons Edler von Rosthorn , Anton Weichselbaum , Leopold Schrötter von Kristelli , Heinrich Obersteiner , Julius Wagner-Jauregg , Viktor von Ebner-Rofenstein , Carl Toldt , Gustav Riehl , Ottokar von Chiari , Anton von Frisch , Ernst Fuchs , Anton Freiherr von Eiselberg , Hans Horst Meyer , Ernst Ludwig , Rudolf Chrobak , Theodor Escherich, Alexander Kolisko , Julius von Hochenegg , Arthur Schattenfroh , Carl von Noorden , Emil Zuckerkandl , Richard Paltauf , Gustav Gärtner , Leopold Oser , Josef Moeller , Alois Monti , Julius Mauthner , Viktor Urbantschitsch , August Leopold von Reuss , Adolf von Strümpell , Ernest Finger , Adolf Lorenz , Friedrich Schauta

Theodor Escherich was born in Ansbach in Central Franconia, the son of District Medical Councilor Ferdinand Escherich (1810–1888) and his second wife, Maria Sophie Frederike von Stromer. The father made a name for himself as an excellent statistician for the health sector in his district. The mother was the daughter of the Bavarian Colonel Karl Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach. When Theodor was five years old, his mother died. Another five years later, Ferdinand Escherich was transferred to his previous position as district medical advisor in Würzburg and married for the third time. At the age of twelve, Theodor was sent to the Stella Matutina boarding school in Feldkirch , Vorarlberg, which was run by Jesuits, and stayed there for three years before completing his schooling at the Würzburg humanistic grammar school with the Abitur in 1876. In the same year he began studying medicine at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg , where, after studying semesters in Kiel and Berlin, he passed the medical license to practice medicine with a grade of one in 1881.

Medical career in Würzburg and Munich (1882–1890)

After completing one and a half years of military service in a Munich military hospital, Escherich returned to Würzburg in 1882 to become second and later first assistant to internist Carl Jakob Adolf Christian Gerhardt at the medical clinic of the Julius Hospital. Gerhardt became Escherich's doctoral supervisor and suggested the topic for his dissertation. On October 27, 1882, Escherich was promoted to Dr. med. PhD. In the following years he went on study trips to Vienna and Paris. In Vienna he heard lectures from Hermann Widerhofer and Alois Monti. At the same time he carried out bacteriological research at the St. Anna Children's Hospital. Later in Paris he heard from the world-famous neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot . In August 1884 he continued his research in Munich, where pediatrics had meanwhile been set up as a department of the medical faculty. In October 1884 he was sent to Naples by the Bavarian government to study the cholera epidemic that was rampant there.

Discovery of Escherichia coli

Escherich's habilitation thesis from 1886

After intensive research work in the laboratory, Escherich published a monograph in 1886 with the title The intestinal bacteria of the infant and their relationship to the physiology of digestion , which was presented to the Medical Faculty in Munich as a habilitation thesis and made Theodor Escherich the leading bacteriologist in paediatrics.

In this publication Escherich described a bacterium that he called " bacterium coli commune " and which was later named "Escherichia coli". For the next four years Escherich worked as Heinrich Ranke's first assistant in the Von Haunersche Children's Clinic in Munich.

Professor in Graz and Vienna (1890–1911)

In 1890 Escherich was appointed professor of paediatrics at the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz , and in 1894 he became the third full professor of medicine in this field. In 1902 he moved to Vienna as a professor of paediatrics , where he headed the St. Anna Children's Hospital.

Escherich died on February 15, 1911 of complications from a stroke. He was buried in an honorary grave at the Hernals cemetery . In 1896 he differentiated rubella from measles and declared it to be an independent disease.

Escherich became famous in 1903 when he founded the association “Infant Protection” and started a large-scale campaign for self- breastfeeding.

In 1919 the Escherichgasse in Vienna- Döbling (19th district) was named after him. In Ansbach, Escherichstrasse at the clinic is named after him.

Awards

  • 1894 - honorary member of the Moscow Pediatric Society
  • 1905 - Honorary Member of the American Pediatric Society
  • 1905 - Member of the Academy of Sciences , St. Louis , Missouri
  • 1906 - Awarded the title of Imperial Court Councilor
  • 1906 - Member of the Medical Academy in Rome
  • 1909 - Honorary member of the Belgian League de la Protection de la Première Enfance

Fonts

  • Infant intestinal bacteria and their relationship to digestive physiology . 1886 ( digitized version )
  • Diphtheria, croup, serum therapy after observations at the University Children's Hospital in Graz. Vienna 1895.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The faculty of the medical faculty of the University of Vienna, Vienna 1908-1910 . Photo credits: Collections of the Medical University of Vienna - Josephinum, picture archive; Associated personal identification .
  2. ↑ Title of the dissertation: The marantine sinus thrombosis in cholera infantum
  3. ↑ According to Oberbauer p. 314, the name was proposed by Aldo Castellani and his partner Chalmers in 1919 , but was not officially introduced until 1958.
  4. ↑ The anniversary of the death of the physician Theodor Escherich . wdr5.de. February 15, 2011. Retrieved on June 14, 2011.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.wdr5.de  
  5. ^ Theodor Escherich grave site , Vienna, Hernalser Friedhof, Group F, No. 7.
  6. ↑ Karl Wurm, AM Walter: Infectious Diseases. In: Ludwig Heilmeyer (ed.): Textbook of internal medicine. Springer-Verlag, Berlin / Göttingen / Heidelberg 1955; 2nd edition, ibid. 1961, pp. 9–223, here: p. 66.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Escherich, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Austrian pediatrician and bacteriologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Ansbach
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1911
Place of death Vienna