Emil Von Behring (redirected from Emil Adolf von Behring)

Behring, Emil Von 

Born Mar. 15, 1854, in Hansdorf; died Mar. 31, 1917, in Marburg. German bacteriologist.

Behring graduated from the Medical Institute in Berlin in 1880. He worked as a military physician from 1881 to 1889 and served as assistant to R. Koch at the Hygiene Institute at the University of Berlin from 1889 to 1895. He was named professor of hygiene in Halle in 1894, and beginning in 1895 he served as director and professor at the Hygiene Institute that he founded in Marburg.

Behring’s main works are devoted to the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. Together with Shibasaburo Kitazato he discovered the medicinal effect of immunizing serums for diphtheria and tetanus and also developed the theory of serotherapy. Behring discovered that a toxin exerts an enhanced effect when administered in a stepwise manner.

Behring won a Nobel Prize in 1901.

WORKS

Die Blutserumtherapie, [vols.] 1–2. Liepzig, 1892.
Ätiologie und ätiologische Therapie des Tetanus. Berlin, 1904.
Einfuhrung in die Lehre von der Bekämpfung der Infektionskrankheiten. Berlin, 1912.