Cohnheim, Julius Friedrich

Cohnheim, Julius Friedrich

(born July 20, 1839, Demmin, Prussia—died Aug. 15, 1884, Leipzig) German pioneer of experimental pathology. While assisting Rudolf Virchow, he confirmed that inflammation results from passage of leukocytes through capillary walls into tissues and that pus is mainly debris from their disintegration. His induction of tuberculosis in a rabbit's eye led to Robert Koch's discovery of the tuberculosis bacillus. His Lectures on General Pathology (2 vol., 1877–80) far outlasted contemporary texts. His method of freezing tissue for thin slicing for microscopic examination is a standard clinical procedure.

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Cohnheim, Julius Friedrich 

Born July 20, 1839, in Demmin, Pomerania; died Aug. 15, 1884, in Leipzig. German pathologist.

Cohnheim studied medicine at the universities of Würzburg, Marburg, Greifswald, and Berlin. In 1864 he was an assistant to R. Virchow. Cohnheim was professor of pathological anatomy at Kiel from 1868, Breslau (now Wroclaw) from 1872, and Leipzig from 1878 to 1884. His principal work was a manual in general pathology, in which he set forth a theory of the origin of tumors (”Cohnheim’s embryonic theory”). According to this theory, tumors are formed from embryonic rudiments that remain unutilized during the origin and growth of the embryo; subsequently, when the life processes of surrounding tissues slacken, these cells, in Cohnheim’s opinion, begin to reproduce intensively. He eleborated a vascular theory of inflammation and a theory concerning the terminal arteries (vessels) and the pathogenesis of an infarct. Cohnheim’s works greatly influenced the development of pathology.

WORKS

Obshchaia patologiia, vols. 1–2. St. Petersburg, 1878–81.
Bugorchatka s tochki zreniia infektsionnoi teorii. St. Petersburg, 1880.

REFERENCE

Serov, V. “Iulius Fridrikh Kongeim (K 75-letiiu so dnia smerti).” Arkhiv patologii, 1959, vol. 21, no. 9.