History of Renal Physiology in Germany during the 19th Century

Hierholzer, Klaus; Ullrich, Karl Julius

doi:10.1159/000013458

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The fluid part of the blood may permeate the delicate parietes of the uriniferous canals, and suffer in its transit a chemical change; or the effete matters contained in the blood of the capillaries may be attracted and separated from it by the agency of the secreting canals.'' This sums up the state of knowledge of kidney structure and function as professed by the chairman of Anatomy and Physiology in Berlin and the mentor of many of the future leading stars of German physiology including Jacob Henle, Emil Du Bois-Reymond, Rudolf Virchow, Theodor Schwann, and others (20,53,54). Hence, the importance of the two landmark publications of Bowman and Ludwig on kidney structure and function published in 1842 in the history of the glomerulus and its study in earnest.…”

Section: Anatomy and Physiologymentioning

confidence: 95%

“…This sums up the state of knowledge of kidney structure and function as professed by the chairman of Anatomy and Physiology in Berlin and the mentor of many of the future leading stars of German physiology including Jacob Henle, Emil Du Bois‐Reymond, Rudolf Virchow, Theodor Schwann, and others (20,53,54). Hence, the importance of the two landmark publications of Bowman and Ludwig on kidney structure and function published in 1842 in the history of the glomerulus and its study in earnest.…”

Section: Anatomy and Physiologymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Another structural finding of note was the continuity of the proximal convoluted tubules as medullary loops by Jacob Henle in 1862 (54,70). Seeking a functional significance for his observation, Henle communicated his discovery to Ludwig, who responded that the observed morphology did suggest some functional significance, and recommended comparative anatomy studies to explore the issue further, essentially the avenue that Bowman had taken in the study of his eponymous capsule.…”

Section: Anatomy and Physiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But it was Carl Ludwig who, in his earliest research as a medical student in Marburg, explained glomerular function in terms of a blood flow‐dependent hemodynamic physical process of mechanical filtration in the glomerular capillaries. His proposal was accepted enthusiastically by some, but vigorously rejected out of hand by others, most notably by Rudolf Heidenhain (1834–1897), a trainee of Du Bois‐Reymond and successor to Johannes Purkinje (1787–1869) to the chair of physiology in Breslau (20,54,58).…”

Section: Anatomy and Physiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Early Modern Kidney—Nephrology in and about the Nineteenth Century (Part 1)

Eknoyan

2012

Seminars in Dialysis

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The 19th century was a period of momentous scientific discoveries, technological achievements, and societal changes. A beneficiary of these revolutionary upheavals was medical empiricism that supplanted the rationalism of the past giving rise to early modern scientific medicine. Continued reliance on sensory data now magnified by technical advances generated new medical information that could be quantified with increasing precision, verified by repeated experimentation, and validated by statistical analysis. The institutionalization and integration of these methodologies into medical education were a defining step that assured their progress and perpetuation. Major advances were made in the nosography of diseases of the kidney, notably that of the diagnosis of progressive kidney disease from the presence of albuminuria by Richard Bright (1789-1858); and of renal structure and function, notably the demonstration of the continuity of the glomerular capsule with the tubular basement membrane by William Bowman (1816-1892), and the arguments for hemodynamic physical forces mediated glomerular filtration by Carl Ludwig (1816-1895) and for active tubular transport by Rudolf Heidenhain (1834-1897). Improvements in microscopy and tissue processing were instrumental in describing the cellular ultrastructure of the glomerulus and tubular segments, but their integrated function remained to be elucidated. The kidney continued to be considered a tubular secretory organ and its pathology attributed to injury of the interstitium (interstitial nephritis) or tubules (parenchymatous nephritis).

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Section: Anatomy and Physiologymentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Anatomy and Physiologymentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Anatomy and Physiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Anatomy and Physiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Early Modern Kidney—Nephrology in and about the Nineteenth Century (Part 1)

Eknoyan

2012

Seminars in Dialysis

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“…After the circulation was initiated, the heart started to beat in a very regular rhythm. Ludwig also experimented with an isolated kidney, describing the renal circulation and formulating a filtration-reabsorption hypothesis of urine formation [13].…”

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confidence: 99%

The first recordings of pharmacological effects

Bronswijk¹,

Cohen²

2008

Brit J Clinical Pharma

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In mid-nineteenth century Germany, the graphic recording of drug effects began simultaneously with the development of pharmacology as an independent science. With the first recording device, the kymograph, drug effects were recorded and compared. A new method for keeping an isolated organ alive facilitated research into the organ's modes of action. Together, these two physiological methods facilitated study of the effects of drugs on organ function. Drug characteristics were discovered and many crude drugs were standardized. Many physiological processes were discovered using these innovative methods. A good example is provided by digitalis, the potency of which varied widely. Digitalis was of great importance in the discovery and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. Subsequently, many physiological processes were discovered using these innovative approaches to drug research.Pharmacology is a relatively young science, arising from the great progress in chemistry and physiology of the nineteenth century [1,2]. At the start of the nineteenth century, chemistry made it possible to isolate active substances from medicinal plants, starting with morphine in 1806 [3]. Physiology provided the methodology for pharmacology to become an independent medical discipline. The French physiologist François Magendie performed one the first pharmacological experiments with the strychnos tree, from which he isolated the alkaloid strychnine. His successor, Claude Bernard, used active substances, e.g. the Indian arrow poison, curare, as 'scalpels chimique' for the 'dissection' of physiological processes. In this way he demonstrated that curare acted upon the connection of the nerve with the muscle, the neuromuscular junction [4,5].Knowledge from chemistry and physiology together formed the basis for experimental pharmacology. Rudolf Buchheim, the first professor of pharmacology, turned drug discovery from an empirical search for cures into a science [6]. He claimed that the effects of a drug could best be studied by isolating the substance, investigating its chemical composition and correlating the chemistry of the drug with the changes it caused in the function of organs.He also formulated the two main questions for drug research: 'in which way and to what extent are drugs altered by the body, and in which way and to what extent do they in turn alter the body's function?' [7]. Such examinations were to be carried out with the same methods as were used in physiology [8]. Oswald Schmiedeberg, Buchheim's most prominent disciple, set up a new laboratory for experimental pharmacology in Strasbourg, then a German city. He was recommended for his post by Carl Ludwig, the great physiologist from Leipzig. Preceding his appointment in Strasbourg, Schmiedeberg had been trained in experimental methodology in Ludwig's institute in Leipzig [9,10]. Buchheim, Schmiedeberg and Ludwig adapted the research methods of physiology and brought modern pharmacology into being.The two most important physiological methods introduced in early pharmacology were the...

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Biophysical Basis of Glomerular Filtration

Thomson

Blantz

2013

Seldin and Giebisch's the Kidney

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History of Renal Physiology in Germany during the 19th Century

Cited by 6 publications

References 19 publications

The Early Modern Kidney—Nephrology in and about the Nineteenth Century (Part 1)

The Early Modern Kidney—Nephrology in and about the Nineteenth Century (Part 1)

The first recordings of pharmacological effects

Biophysical Basis of Glomerular Filtration

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