Life and places of activity of Julius Cohnheim

This paper gives an account of the life of Cohnheim (1839-1884) beginning in Berlin where for seven years he was one of the most able pupils of Virchow, to the professorial chairs in Kiel (1868), Breslau (1872) and finally Leipzig (1878) where he headed the Pathological Institute until his premature death in 1884. In his scientific work Cohnheim devoted his attention to four great themes. These were the study of inflammation and the pathology of circulation, the causes and development of tumours as well as the problem of tumour metastasis and the aetiology of tuberculosis. The sum of his experience in all these central problems of pathology has been brought together in his "Lectures on general pathology". His worldwide reputation rests especially on his research into the causes of inflammation, in which he experimentally confirmed the outward migration of leucocytes through the blood vessel wall. Cohnheim fully recognized the importance which experiments have for pathology and made fundamental contributions to the perfection of experimental pathological techniques.