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Anton Weichselbaum on the etiology of acute endocarditis-1885

1973; Elsevier BV; Volume: 31; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0002-9149(73)90013-1

1879-1913

Saul Jarcho,

Infective Endocarditis Diagnosis and Management

During the last 30 years of the 19th century, lesions of the heart valves, infected and uninfected, were under active study in the clinics and pathologic institutes of central Europe. Some of the writings that record the advance of knowledge in this field have been discussed in the last few volumes of this Journal. Ulcerative (later called bacterial) endocarditis became the subject of controversy between the great Rudolf Virchow and the lesser Karl Koester. The details are given in a thesis by Virchow’s pupil Joseph Hamburg,l which was recently discussed in the present historical series.* To the same controversy a brief and interesting contribution was made by the eminent Anton Weichselbaum (1845 to 1920). Early in his career Weichselbaum served as physician and prosector in the Austro-Hungarian army. In 1885 he became professor of pathologic histology and bacteriology at the University of Vienna. Eight years later he attained the important post of Professor Ordinarius of Pathological Anatomy at the same university. Although he made highly esteemed contributions to oncology and to knowledge of diabetes, his name is now remembered mainly in connection with the infectious diseases, especially meningitis, pneumococcus infections and tuberculosis. The Diplococcus intracellularis meningitidis was so named by him in 1887 but for a long time was designated informally as Weichselbaum’s meningococcus. Actually his importance far transcended these contributions, since he was one of the first to recognize the importance of bacteriology to pathology and to public health. He is given much credit also for the high rank that public health attained in Austria during his active years.3 The essay that is now to be considered exemplifies Weichselbaum’s interest in infection. It is titled, “Zur Aetiologie der akuten Endokarditis” (“On the Etiology of Acute Endocarditis”) and was published in the Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift.4