Christian Georg Schmorl (2 May 1861 – 14 August 1932) was a German

pathologist Pathology is the study of the causal, causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when us ...

who was a native of

Mügeln Mügeln is a town in the district Nordsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. It is located 9 km southwest of Oschatz and 14 km northwest of Döbeln. The town has a population of approximately 4700 people. Geography Mügeln lies almost equidista ...

in the

Kingdom of Saxony The Kingdom of Saxony (german: Königreich Sachsen), lasting from 1806 to 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. The kingdom was formed from the Electorate of Saxon ...

. He studied medicine at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

, where in 1892 he obtained his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

for

forensic medicine Forensic medicine is a broad term used to describe a group of medical specialties which deal with the examination and diagnosis of individuals who have been injured by or who have died because of external or unnatural causes such as poisoning, assa ...

. Up until 1894 he worked as an assistant under pathologist

Felix Victor Birch-Hirschfeld Felix Victor Birch-Hirschfeld (2 May 1842 – 19 November 1899) was a German pathologist who was a native of Kluvensieck bei Rendsburg. Biography In 1867 he received his medical doctorate from the University of Leipzig, where he studied under C ...

at the university.Christian Georg Schmorl
at

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 ...

. For most of his career (1894-1931) he was associated with the city hospital in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

(Krankenhaus Dresden-Friedrichstadt). Schmorl is remembered for his work in

histology Histology, also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology which studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at larger structures vis ...

and his studies of the human

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

. He created an histological stain especially designed to show the canaliculi and

lamellae Lamella (plural lamellae) means a small plate or flake in Latin, and in English may refer to: Biology * Lamella (mycology), a papery rib beneath a mushroom cap * Lamella (botany) * Lamella (surface anatomy), a plate-like structure in an animal * ...

in sections of bone. He also described protrusions of the

intervertebral disc An intervertebral disc (or intervertebral fibrocartilage) lies between adjacent vertebrae in the vertebral column. Each disc forms a fibrocartilaginous joint (a symphysis), to allow slight movement of the vertebrae, to act as a ligament to hold t ...

into the

vertebral body The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...

. These protrusions are now known as Schmorl's nodes. Shortly before his death, Schmorl published ''Die Gesunde und Kranke Wirbelsäule'' (The Healthy and Sick Spine). He died from

sepsis Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...

caused by an infected finger, which he nicked in the process of dissecting a spine. In 1904 Schmorl coined the term

kernicterus Kernicterus is a bilirubin-induced brain dysfunction. The term was coined in 1904 by Christian Georg Schmorl. Bilirubin is a naturally occurring substance in the body of humans and many other animals, but it is neurotoxic when its concentration ...

to describe nuclear

jaundice Jaundice, also known as icterus, is a yellowish or greenish pigmentation of the skin and sclera due to high bilirubin levels. Jaundice in adults is typically a sign indicating the presence of underlying diseases involving abnormal heme meta ...

of the

basal ganglia The basal ganglia (BG), or basal nuclei, are a group of subcortical nuclei, of varied origin, in the brains of vertebrates. In humans, and some primates, there are some differences, mainly in the division of the globus pallidus into an extern ...

. This condition was earlier identified in 1875 by pathologist

Johannes Orth Johannes Orth (14 January 1847 – 13 January 1923 in Berlin) was a German pathologist born in Wallmerod. He studied medicine at the universities of Heidelberg, Würzburg and Bonn, receiving his habilitation in 1872 while an assistant to Eduar ...

(1847-1923).

References

Pioneers in the Scientific Study of Neonatal Jaundice and Kernicterus
Pediatrics / August 2000, Volume 106 / Issue 2.

School of Anatomy and Human Biology- The University of Western Australia * ''This article incorporates translated text from an equivalent article at the

German Wikipedia The German Wikipedia (german: Deutschsprachige Wikipedia) is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia. Founded on March 16, 2001, it is the second-oldest Wikipedia (after the English Wikipedia), ...

.''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmorl, Christian Georg 1861 births 1932 deaths People from Nordsachsen People from the Kingdom of Saxony Leipzig University alumni German pathologists German histologists Deaths from sepsis