Alfred Fröhlich (August 15, 1871 – March 22, 1953) was an Austrian-American

pharmacologist Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

and

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Biography

Fröhlich was born in Vienna, into a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family.Joseph Meites, ''Pioneers in Neuroendocrinology'', Springer Science & Business Media (2012), p. 115 In 1895 he graduated from the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

, afterwards remaining at Vienna as an assistant to

Carl Nothnagel Carl Wilhelm Hermann Nothnagel (28 September 1841 – 7 July 1905) was a German internist born in Alt-Lietzegöricke ( pl, Stare Łysogórki), near Bärwalde in der Neumark ( pl, Mieszkowice), Neumark, Brandenburg. Career The son of a pha ...

(1841–1905). In 1905 he became a member of the department of pharmacology at the university, and from 1919 until 1939 he was a full professor of pharmacology and

toxicology Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating expo ...

. Following the Nazi takeover of Austria, Fröhlich emigrated to the United States, where he worked at the May Institute of Medical Research of the Jewish Hospital of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. Here he continued his experimental research of the

central nervous system The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain and spinal cord. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity of all par ...

. He is remembered for his studies on the effects of the

pituitary In vertebrate anatomy, the pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland, about the size of a chickpea and weighing, on average, in humans. It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain. The hypop ...

on the

autonomic nervous system The autonomic nervous system (ANS), formerly referred to as the vegetative nervous system, is a division of the peripheral nervous system that supplies viscera, internal organs, smooth muscle and glands. The autonomic nervous system is a control ...

. With

Otto Loewi Otto Loewi (; 3 June 1873 – 25 December 1961) was a German-born pharmacologist and psychobiologist who discovered the role of acetylcholine as an endogenous neurotransmitter. For his discovery he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or M ...

(1873–1961), he performed

pharmacological Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

research on

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

. He was a good friend of

Harvey Cushing Harvey Williams Cushing (April 8, 1869 – October 7, 1939) was an American neurosurgeon, pathologist, writer, and draftsman. A pioneer of brain surgery, he was the first exclusive neurosurgeon and the first person to describe Cushing's disease. ...

, whom he met in 1901 while working with

Charles Scott Sherrington Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (27 November 1857 – 4 March 1952) was an eminent English neurophysiologist. His experimental research established many aspects of contemporary neuroscience, including the concept of the spinal reflex as a system ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. In addition to his own laboratory, he also worked in marine laboratories at

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Helgoland Heligoland (; german: Helgoland, ; Heligolandic Frisian: , , Mooring Frisian: , da, Helgoland) is a small archipelago in the North Sea. A part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein since 1890, the islands were historically possessions ...

and in

Woods Hole, Massachusetts Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 781 at ...

during his career. Fröhlich died in 1953 in Cincinnati.

Fröhlich's syndrome

In 1901 he provided a comprehensive description of '' dystrophia adiposogenitalis'', of which he published a paper titled ''Ein Fall von Tumor der Hypophysis cerebri ohne Akromegalie''. This disorder is characterized by feminine

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's we ...

along with retarded sexual maturity, and is caused by

tumor A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

s of the pituitary. In honor of his discovery, this condition was to become known as " Fröhlich's syndrome". It is sometimes referred to as Babinski-Fröhlich syndrome, named in conjunction with

Joseph Babinski Joseph Jules François Félix Babinski ( pl, Józef Julian Franciszek Feliks Babiński; 17 November 1857 – 29 October 1932) was a French- Polish professor of neurology. He is best known for his 1896 description of the Babinski sign, a pathologi ...

, who gave an independent description of the disease a year earlier in 1900.

Selected publications

* ''Ein Fall von Tumor der Hypophysis cerebri ohne Akromegalie'' (A case involving a tumor of the

hypophysis cerebri In vertebrate anatomy, the pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland, about the size of a chickpea and weighing, on average, in humans. It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain. The hypoph ...

without

acromegaly Acromegaly is a disorder that results from excess growth hormone (GH) after the growth plates have closed. The initial symptom is typically enlargement of the hands and feet. There may also be an enlargement of the forehead, jaw, and nose. Other ...

), In: Wiener klinische Rundschau, 1901, 15: 833–836; 906–908. * ''Pharmakologie des Centralnervensystems'' (

Pharmacology Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

of the central nervous system). In: Handbuch der normalen und pathologischen Physiologie. Volume 10, Wien, 1927. * ''Pharmakologie des vegetativen (autonomen) Nervensystems'' (Pharmacology of the autonomic nervous system), In: Handbuch der normalen und pathologischen Physiologie. Volume 10, Wien, 1927. * ''Allgemein lähmende und erregbarkeitssteigernde Gifte'', In: Handbuch der normalen und pathologischen Physiologie. Volume 9, Wien, 1929.

References

''Alfred Fröhlich''
@

Who Named It ''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograph ...

;Specific

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frohlich, Alfred Austrian Jews Austrian neurologists Austrian pharmacologists 1871 births 1953 deaths Academic staff of the University of Vienna Scientists from Vienna