Bernhard Naunyn
Encyclopedia
Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs
Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs was a German pathologist who was born in Aurich. After earning his medical degree from the University of Göttingen in 1841, he returned to Aurich and spent the next four years there as an optician...
(1819–1885). Afterwards he was the head of medical clinics in Dorpat (1869–1871), Bern (1871–1872), Königsberg
Königsberg
Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...
(1872–1888), and Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, where he also taught at the Imperial University
University of Strasbourg
The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with about 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....
(1888–1904).
Naunyn is remembered for his work in experimental pathology
Experimental pathology
Experimental pathology, also known as investigative pathology is the scientific study of disease processes through the microscopic or molecular examination of organs, tissues, cells, or body fluids from diseased organisms. It is closely related, both historically and in modern academic settings, to...
, particularly metabolic pathology; also referred to as xenobiotic
Xenobiotic
A xenobiotic is a chemical which is found in an organism but which is not normally produced or expected to be present in it. It can also cover substances which are present in much higher concentrations than are usual...
metabolism
Metabolism
Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that happen in the cells of living organisms to sustain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories...
. It was during the time he spent working at Frerich's clinic in Berlin that he became interested in the metabolic pathology regarding the liver
Liver
The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
, pancreas
Pancreas
The pancreas is a gland organ in the digestive and endocrine system of vertebrates. It is both an endocrine gland producing several important hormones, including insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin, as well as a digestive organ, secreting pancreatic juice containing digestive enzymes that assist...
and other internal organs. In his studies of the fermentation processes of the stomach
Stomach
The stomach is a muscular, hollow, dilated part of the alimentary canal which functions as an important organ of the digestive tract in some animals, including vertebrates, echinoderms, insects , and molluscs. It is involved in the second phase of digestion, following mastication .The stomach is...
, he noticed the "contra-fermentation" properties of benzene
Benzene
Benzene is an organic chemical compound. It is composed of 6 carbon atoms in a ring, with 1 hydrogen atom attached to each carbon atom, with the molecular formula C6H6....
. He discovered that the human organism excreted phenol
Phenol
Phenol, also known as carbolic acid, phenic acid, is an organic compound with the chemical formula C6H5OH. It is a white crystalline solid. The molecule consists of a phenyl , bonded to a hydroxyl group. It is produced on a large scale as a precursor to many materials and useful compounds...
after it had received benzene. With physician Otto Schultzen
Otto Schultzen
Karl Ludwig Wilhelm Otto Schultzen was a German physician born in Lissa.He studied medicine at the Universities of Königsberg and Berlin, earning his doctorate in 1862 with the thesis Deinanition, accedit observatio et exploratio microscopica...
(1837–1875) he discovered that benzene-derived hydrocarbons in the body had the ability to perform chemistry that was not possible for chemists to achieve in a conventional laboratory.
Naunyn also made contributions in his research of diabetes and cholelithiasis, and in 1898 published an important treatise on diabetes titled Der Diabetes Melitus. With pharmacologist Oswald Schmiedeberg
Oswald Schmiedeberg
Oswald Schmiedeberg was a Baltic German pharmacologist.Schmiedeberg was born at Gut Laidsen in the Imperial Russian province of Courland. In 1866 he earned his medical doctorate from the University of Dorpat with a thesis concerning the measurement of chloroform in blood. Afterwards he was an...
(1838–1921) and pathologist Edwin Klebs
Edwin Klebs
Theodor Albrecht Edwin Klebs was a German-Swiss pathologist. He is mainly known for his work on infectious diseases. He is the father of Arnold Klebs.-Life:...
(1834–1913) he founded Archiv für experimentelle Pathologie und Pharmakologie, and in 1896 with surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
Jan Mikulicz-Radecki
Jan Mikulicz-Radecki
Jan Mikulicz-Radecki was a Polish-Austrian surgeon. He was born May 16, 1850 in Czernowitz in the Austrian Empire and died June 4, 1905 in Breslau, German Empire .While his mother Freiin von Damnitz was Austrian, his parental ancestors of the Mikulicz...
(1850–1905) he founded Mitteilungen aus dem Grenzgebieten der Medizin und Chirurgie. With Oskar Minkowski
Oskar Minkowski
Oskar Minkowski He held a professor at at the University of Breslau and is most famous for his research on diabetes...
(1858–1931) he theorized that bile
Bile
Bile or gall is a bitter-tasting, dark green to yellowish brown fluid, produced by the liver of most vertebrates, that aids the process of digestion of lipids in the small intestine. In many species, bile is stored in the gallbladder and upon eating is discharged into the duodenum...
pigment formation was a function of liver cells alone, however this theory was later disproved by John William McNee in 1913.
A famous student of Naunyn's was Otto Loewi
Otto Loewi
Otto Loewi was a German born pharmacologist whose discovery of acetylcholine helped enhance medical therapy. The discovery earned for him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1936 which he shared with Sir Henry Dale, whom he met in 1902 when spending some months in Ernest Starling's...
(1873–1961) who was the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
in 1936.
His grave is preserved in the Protestant Friedhof II der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde (Cemetery No. II of the congregations of Jerusalem's Church
Jerusalem's Church
Jerusalem's Church is one of the churches of the Evangelical Congregation in the Friedrichstadt , a member of the Protestant umbrella organisation Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. The present church building is located in Berlin, borough Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, in...
and New Church
Deutscher Dom
Deutscher Dom is the colloquial naming for the New Church located in Berlin on the Gendarmenmarkt across from Französischer Dom . Its parish comprised the northern part of the then new quarter of Friedrichstadt, which until then belonged to the parish of the congregations of Jerusalem's Church...
) in Berlin-Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg, a part of the combined Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte since 2001, is one of the best-known areas of Berlin...
, south of Hallesches Tor
Hallesches Tor (Berlin U-Bahn)
The underground station Hallesches Tor is part of the Berlin U-Bahn network at the intersection of the east-west bound U1 and the north-south bound U6 in the Kreuzberg district.-Overview:...
.