Hermann Nothnagel


Carl Wilhelm Hermann Nothnagel was a German internist, born in Alt-Lietzegöricke, near Bärwalde in der Neumark, Neumark, Brandenburg.

Career

The son of a pharmacist, from 1858 to 1863 Nothnagel studied under Ludwig Traube and Rudolf Virchow at the University of Berlin. From 1865 to 1868 he was an assistant to Ernst Viktor von Leyden at the University of Königsberg where, in 1866, he was habilitated for internal medicine. From 1868 to 1870 he worked as a military physician and lecturer in Berlin and later served in the same roles at Breslau.
In 1872 he relocated to Freiburg and in 1874 was appointed full professor at the medical clinic in Jena. From 1882 until his death in 1905, he was a professor at the university clinic in Vienna. One of his better known students was Constantin von Economo. In 1879 he became a member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina.
In 1876 he described the irregular pulse associated with atrial fibrillation. At the time he referred to this finding as "delirium cordis". The eponymous "Nothnagel's syndrome" is named after him, a disorder characterized by ipsilateral oculomotor palsy and contralateral cerebellar ataxia.
He died in Vienna. He is interred at the Matzleinsdorf Protestant Cemetery. In 1922 medical historian Max Neuburger published his biography with the title "Hermann Nothnagel, Leben und Wirken eines deutschen Klinikers".

Published works

In collaboration with other physicians, Nothnagel published "Specielle Pathologie und Therapie", a comprehensive 24-volume handbook of medicine. Prior editions of this work were issued by Rudolf Virchow and Hugo Wilhelm von Ziemssen as "Handbuch der speciellen Pathologie und Therapie".Handbuch der Arzneimittellehre. 1870. ; with Michael Joseph Rossbach, from the 3rd edition onward.Über den epileptischen Anfall., 1872Über die Diagnose und Aetiologie der einseitigen Lungenschrumpfung., 1876.Anämie und Hyperämie, Blutungen und Erweichungen des Gehirns.Epilepsie..Tophische Diagnostik der Gehirnkrankheiten. Eine klinische Studie. 1879.Die Symptomatologie der Darmgeschwüre., 1881.Beiträge zur Physiologie und Pathologie des Darms. 1884.Vorträge über die Diagnose bei den Gehirnkrankheiten. 1887.Specielle Pathologie und Therapie. 1894–1905, 24 volumes.Die Erkrankungen des Darms und des Peritoneum..