Carl F.W. Ludwig (1816-1895)

Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (b. 29 December 1816 in Witzenhausen, Hessen, Germany; d. 23 April 1895) was a German physician and physiologist. Jump to: navigation, search Image File history File links CarlLudwig. ... Jump to: navigation, search Image File history File links CarlLudwig. ... December 29 is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 2 days remaining. ... 1816 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Witzenhausen is a town with a population of 10,000 in the Werra-Meißner district of Hessen, Germany. ... Hesse is also the name of the German writer Hermann Hesse, as well as the German mathematician Otto Hesse. ... Jump to: navigation, search April 23 is the 113th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (114th in leap years). ... 1895 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Physician examining a child The word physician should not be confused with physicist, which means a scientist in the area of physics. ... Physiology (in Greek physis = nature and logos = word) is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. ...

He studied medicine in Marburg and Erlangen. In 1842 he became a professor of physiology and in 1846 of comparative anatomy. From professorhips in Zurich and Vienna he went in 1865 to the University of Leipzig and developed there the Physiological Institute, designated today after him. Ludwig researched several topics such as the physiology of blood pressure, urinary excretion and anesthesia. He received the Copley Medal in 1884 for his research. Medicine on the Web NLM (National Library of Medicine, contains resources for patients and healthcare professionals) Virtual Hospital (digital health sciences library by the University of Iowa) Online Medical Dictionary Collection of links to free medical resources Categories: Medicine | Health ... Marburg is a city in Hesse, Germany, on the Lahn river. ... Erlangen around 1915 Erlangen is a German city in Middle Franconia. ... Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in organisms. ... Location within Switzerland   Zürich[?] (German pronunciation IPA: ; usually spelled Zurich in English) is the largest city in Switzerland (population: 366,145 in 2004; population of urban area: 1,091,732) and capital of the canton of Zürich. ... Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]; Hungarian: Bécs) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austrias nine federal states (Bundesland Wien). ... The University of Leipzig (Universität Leipzig), located in Leipzig in the Free State and former Kingdom of Saxony, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. ... Blood pressure is the pressure exerted by the blood on the walls of the blood vessels. ... Cetacaine, a topical anesthetic Anesthesia (American English), also anaesthesia (British English), is the process of blocking the perception of pain and other sensations. ... The Copley Medal is a scientific award for work in any field of science, the highest award granted by the Royal Society of London. ...

Since 1932 the Carl Ludwig Honorary Medal is awarded by the German Society for Cardiology to outstanding investigators in the area of cardiovascular research.

Life

He was born at Witzenhausen, near Cassel and studied medicine at Erlangen and Marburg, taking his doctor's degree at Marburg in 1839. He made Marburg his home for the next ten years, studying and teaching anatomy and physiology, first as prosector to FL Fick (1841), then as privat-docent (1842), and finally as extraordinary professor (1846). In 1849 he was chosen professor of anatomy and physiology at Zurich, and six years afterwards he went to Vienna as professor in the Josephinum (school for military surgeons). Erlangen around 1915 Erlangen is a German city in Middle Franconia. ... Marburg is a city in Hesse, Germany, on the Lahn river. ... 1839 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search Privatdozent (PD or Priv. ...

In 1865 he was appointed to the newly created chair of physiology at Leipzig, and continued there until his death on the 23rd of April 1895. Ludwig's name is prominent in the history of physiology, and he had a large share in bringing about the change in the method of that science which took place about the middle of the 19th century. With his friends H von Helmholtz, EW Brücke and Emil du Bois-Reymond, whom he met for the first time in Berlin in 1847, he rejected the assumption that the phenomena of living animals depend on special biological laws and vital forces different from those which operate in the domain of inorganic nature; and he sought to explain them by reference to the same laws as are applicable in the case of physical and chemical phenomena. Jump to: navigation, search 1865 is a common year starting on Sunday. ... Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (August 31, 1821 – September 8, 1894) was a German physician and physicist. ... Jump to: navigation, search Ernst Wilhelm Ritter von Brücke (b. ... Emil du Bois-Reymond. ...

This point of view was expressed in his celebrated Text-book of Human Physiology (1852-1856), but it is as evident in his earliest paper (1842) on the process of urinary secretion as in all his subsequent work. Ludwig exercised enormous influence on the progress of physiology, not only by the discoveries he made, but also by the new methods and apparatus he introduced to its service. Thus in regard to secretion, he showed that secretory glands, such as the submaxillary, are more than mere filters, and that their secretory action is attended by chemical and thermal changes both in themselves and in the blood passing through them. The maxillary sinus is the largest paranasal sinus. ...

He demonstrated the existence of a new class of secretory nerves that control this action, and by showing that if the nerves are appropriately stimulated the salivary glands continue to secrete, even though the animal be decapitated, he initiated the method of experimenting with excised organs. He devised the kymograph as a means of obtaining a written record of the variations in the pressure of the blood in the blood-vessels; and this apparatus not only conducted him to many important conclusions respecting the mechanics of the circulation, but afforded the first instance of the use of the graphic method in physiological inquiries. For the purpose of his researches on the gases in the blood, he designed the mercurial blood-pump which in various modifications has come into extensive use, and by its aid he made many investigations on the gases of the lymph, the gaseous interchanges in living muscle, the significance of oxidized material in the blood, etc. Jump to: navigation, search A nerve is an enclosed, cable-like bundle of nerve fibers or axons, which includes the glia that ensheath the axons in myelin. ... A kymograph is a graphical representation of spatial position over time in which a spatial axis represents time. ... In mammals including humans, the lymphatic vessels (or lymphatics) are a network of thin tubes that branch, like blood vessels, into tissues throughout the body. ...

There is indeed scarcely any branch of physiology, except the physiology of the senses, to which he did not make important contributions. He was also a great power as a teacher and the founder of a school. Under him the Physiological Institute at Leipzig became an organized centre of physiological research, whence issued a steady stream of original work; and though the papers containing the results usually bore the name of his pupils only, every investigation was inspired by him and carried out under his personal direction. Thus his pupils gained a practical acquaintance with his methods and ways of thought, and, coming from all parts of Europe, they returned to their own countries to spread and extend his doctrines. Possessed himself of extraordinary manipulative skill, he abhorred rough and clumsy work, and he insisted that experiments on animals should be planned and prepared with the utmost care, not only to avoid the infliction of pain (which was also guarded against by the use of an anaesthetic), but to ensure that the deductions drawn from them should have their full scientific value.

Bibliography

• Luderitz B. Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (1816-1895). J Interv Card Electrophysiol. 2004 Dec;11(3):221-2. PMID: 15548890
• Zimmer HG. The contributions of Carl Ludwig to cardiology. Can J Cardiol. 1999 Mar;15(3):323-9. PMID: 10202196
• Davis JM, Thurau K, Haberle D. Carl Ludwig: the discoverer of glomerular filtration. Nephrol Dial Transplant. 1996 Apr;11(4):717-20. PMID: 8671870
• Schubert E. The theory of and experimentation into respiratory gas exchange--Carl Ludwig and his school. Pflugers Arch. 1996;432(3 Suppl):R111-9. PMID: 8994552
• Seller H. Carl Ludwig and the localization of the medullary vasomotor center: old and new concepts of the generation of sympathetic tone. Pflugers Arch. 1996;432(3 Suppl):R94-8. PMID: 8994549
• Thurau K, Davis JM, Haberle DA. Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig: the founder of modern renal physiology. Pflugers Arch. 1996;432(3 Suppl):R68-72. PMID: 8994545
• Schroer H. Relevance and reliability of Ludwig's scientific conceptions of the physiology of the microcirculation. Pflugers Arch. 1996;432(3 Suppl):R23-32. PMID: 8994539
• Zimmer HG. Carl Ludwig: the man, his time, his influence. Pflugers Arch. 1996;432(3 Suppl):R9-22. PMID: 8994538
• Ludwig CF. 1842--a landmark in nephrology: Carl Ludwig's revolutionary concept of renal function. Kidney Int Suppl. 1994 Oct;46:1-23. PMID: 7823448
• Fye WB. Carl Ludwig. Clin Cardiol. 1991 Apr;14(4):361-3. PMID: 2032415
• Fye WB. Carl Ludwig and the Leipzig Physiological Institute: 'a factory of new knowledge'. Circulation. 1986 Nov;74(5):920-8. PMID: 3533314

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