Carl Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Flügge (12 September 1847 – 10 December 1923) was a German

bacteriologist A bacteriologist is a microbiologist, or similarly trained professional, in bacteriology -- a subdivision of microbiology that studies bacteria, typically pathogenic ones. Bacteriologists are interested in studying and learning about bacteria, ...

and hygienist. His finding that pathogens were present in expiratory droplets, the eponymous Flügge droplets, laid ground for the concept of droplet transmission as a route for the spread of respiratory infectious diseases.

Early life and education

Carl Flügge was a native of

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

. He studied medicine in

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, and in 1878 was a lecturer of

hygiene Hygiene is a series of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Career

In 1881 Flügge became the first chair of hygiene at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

, and afterwards a professor at the Universities of Breslau and

, where he succeeded Max Rubner at the Department of Hygiene. Flügge was a colleague of microbiologist

Robert Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( , ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera (though the bacteri ...

, with whom he co-edited the journal ''Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten''. Two of his better-known assistants at Breslau were Wolfgang Weichardt (1875–1943) and Walther Kruse (1864–1943).

Legacy

Flügge is known for advocating hygiene as an independent medical discipline, and is remembered for performing extensive research involving the transmission of infectious diseases such as

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

and cholera. In the 1890s, he demonstrated that even during "quiet speech", minute droplets, the Flügge droplets are sprayed into the air. This laid ground to the concept of droplet transmission, still in use in the 21 st century. The finding was instrumental in Jan Mikulicz-Radecki's advocacy of surgical gauze masks in 1897.

Publications

Among his publications are two important books on hygiene: * * Other works include: * *
Part 1Part 2
Articles include:
''Die Verbreitung der Phthise durch staubförmiges Sputum und durch beim Husten verspritzte Tröpfchen''
Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten volume 30, pages 107–124 (1899)

References

Bibliography

Lehrbuch der hygienischen Untersuchungsmethoden

The Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life
* * German microbiologists Hygienists 1847 births 1923 deaths University of Göttingen faculty Humboldt University of Berlin faculty University of Breslau faculty Medical Microbiology and Immunology editors {{Germany-med-bio-stub