Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle (; 9 July 1809 – 13 May 1885) was a German physician,

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 ...

, and

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...

. He is credited with the discovery of the

loop of Henle In the kidney, the loop of Henle () (or Henle's loop, Henle loop, nephron loop or its Latin counterpart ''ansa nephroni'') is the portion of a nephron that leads from the proximal convoluted tubule to the distal convoluted tubule. Named after its ...

in the

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blood ...

. His essay, "On Miasma and Contagia," was an early argument for the

germ theory of disease The germ theory of disease is the currently accepted scientific theory for many diseases. It states that microorganisms known as pathogens or "germs" can lead to disease. These small organisms, too small to be seen without magnification, invade ...

. He was an important figure in the development of modern medicine.

Biography

Henle was born in

Fürth Fürth (; East Franconian: ; yi, פיורדא, Fiurda) is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, in the administrative division (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the t ...

, Bavaria, to Simon and Rachel Diesbach Henle (Hähnlein). He was Jewish. After studying medicine at

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

and at

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-Ruhr r ...

, where he took his doctor's degree in 1832, he became

prosector A prosector is a person with the special task of preparing a dissection for demonstration, usually in medical schools or hospitals. Many important anatomists began their careers as prosectors working for lecturers and demonstrators in anatomy and p ...

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...

to Johannes Müller at

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. During the six years he spent in that position he published a large amount of work, including three anatomical monographs on new species of animals and papers on the structure of the

lymphatic system The lymphatic system, or lymphoid system, is an organ system in vertebrates that is part of the immune system, and complementary to the circulatory system. It consists of a large network of lymphatic vessels, lymph nodes, lymphatic or lymphoid o ...

, the distribution of

epithelium Epithelium or epithelial tissue is one of the four basic types of animal tissue, along with connective tissue, muscle tissue and nervous tissue. It is a thin, continuous, protective layer of compactly packed cells with a little intercellul ...

in the human body, the structure and development of the hair, and the formation of

mucus Mucus ( ) is a slippery aqueous secretion produced by, and covering, mucous membranes. It is typically produced from cells found in mucous glands, although it may also originate from mixed glands, which contain both serous and mucous cells. It ...

and

pus Pus is an exudate, typically white-yellow, yellow, or yellow-brown, formed at the site of inflammation during bacterial or fungal infection. An accumulation of pus in an enclosed tissue space is known as an abscess, whereas a visible collection ...

. In 1840, he accepted the chair of

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

and in 1844 he was called to Heidelberg, where he taught anatomy,

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

, and

pathology Pathology is the study of the 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 used in ...

. About this period he was engaged on delineating his complete system of general anatomy, which formed the sixth volume of the new edition of Samuel Thomas von Sömmering's treatise, published at

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 wel ...

between 1841 and 1844. While at Heidelberg he published a zoological monograph on the

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimo ...

s and

rays Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gra ...

, in conjunction with his master Müller, and in 1846 his famous ''Manual of Rational Pathology'' began to appear; this marked the beginning of a new era in pathological study, since in it physiology and pathology were treated, in Henle's own words, as branches of one science, and the facts of disease were systematically considered with reference to their physiological relations. In 1852, he moved to

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

, whence he issued three years later the first instalment of his great ''Handbook of Systematic Human Anatomy'', the last volume of which was not published until 1873. This work was perhaps the most complete and comprehensive of its kind at that time, and it was remarkable not only for the fullness and minuteness of its anatomical descriptions but also for the number and excellence of the illustrations with which they elucidated minute anatomy of the blood vessels,

serous membrane The serous membrane (or serosa) is a smooth tissue membrane of mesothelium lining the contents and inner walls of body cavities, which secrete serous fluid to allow lubricated sliding movements between opposing surfaces. The serous membrane ...

, eye, nails,

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 ...

, etc. He discovered the

and Henle's tubules, two anatomical structures in the kidney. Other anatomical and pathological findings associated with his name are: * Crypts of Henle: Microscopic pockets located in the

conjunctiva The conjunctiva is a thin mucous membrane that lines the inside of the eyelids and covers the sclera (the white of the eye). It is composed of non-keratinized, stratified squamous epithelium with goblet cells, stratified columnar epithelium ...

of the eye. * Hassall–Henle bodies: Transparent growths in the periphery of the

Descemet membrane Descemet's membrane ( or the Descemet membrane) is the basement membrane that lies between the corneal proper substance, also called stroma, and the endothelial layer of the cornea. It is composed of different kinds of collagen (Type IV and VIII ...

of the eye. * Henle's fissure: Fibrous tissue between the

cardiac muscle Cardiac muscle (also called heart muscle, myocardium, cardiomyocytes and cardiac myocytes) is one of three types of vertebrate muscle tissues, with the other two being skeletal muscle and smooth muscle. It is an involuntary, striated muscle th ...

fibers. * Henle's ampulla:

Ampulla An ampulla (; ) was, in Ancient Rome, a small round vessel, usually made of glass and with two handles, used for sacred purposes. The word is used of these in archaeology, and of later flasks, often handle-less and much flatter, for holy water or ...

of the uterine tube. *

Henle's layer Henle's layer is the third and the outermost layer of the inner root sheath of the hair follicle, consisting of a single layer of cubical cells with clear flattened nuclei. It is named after German physician, pathologist and anatomist A ...

: Outer layer of cells of root sheath of a hair follicle. * Henle's ligament:

Tendon A tendon or sinew is a tough, high-tensile-strength band of dense fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone. It is able to transmit the mechanical forces of muscle contraction to the skeletal system without sacrificing its ability ...

of the

transversus abdominis muscle The transverse abdominal muscle (TVA), also known as the transverse abdominis, transversalis muscle and transversus abdominis muscle, is a muscle layer of the anterior and lateral (front and side) abdominal wall which is deep to (layered below) t ...

. * Henle's membrane: Bruch's layer forming inner boundary of the choroid of the eye. * Henle's sheath: Connective tissue which supports outer layer of nerve fibres in a funiculus. * Henle's spine: The supra-meateal spine that serves as a landmark in the

mastoid The mastoid part of the temporal bone is the posterior (back) part of the temporal bone, one of the bones of the skull. Its rough surface gives attachment to various muscles (via tendons) and it has openings for blood vessels. From its borders, ...

area. * Glands of Henle: Depressions in the eye in which epithelial cells accumulate in cases of cicatrial trachoma. * Tubes of Henle: Numerous tiny tubes connecting the choroid to retina carrying vessels and nerves. Henle developed the concepts of contagium vivum and contagium animatum, respectively (''Von den Miasmen und Kontagien'', 1840) – thereby following ideas of

Girolamo Fracastoro Girolamo Fracastoro ( la, Hieronymus Fracastorius; c. 1476/86 August 1553) was an Italian physician, poet, and scholar in mathematics, geography and astronomy. Fracastoro subscribed to the philosophy of atomism, and rejected appeals to hidden ca ...

and the work of

Agostino Bassi Agostino Bassi, sometimes called de Lodi (25 September 1773 – 8 February 1856), was an Italian entomologist. He preceded Louis Pasteur in the discovery that microorganisms can be the cause of disease (the germ theory of disease). He discovered ...

; thus co-founding the theory of microorganisms as the cause of infective diseases. He did not find a special species of bacteria himself – this was achieved by his student

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 Vibrio ...

. Those two put up the fundamental rules of cleanly defining disease-causing microbes: the Henle Koch postulates. In 1870, he was elected a foreign member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

. He died in Göttingen, 13 May 1885.

Bibliography

* ''Ueber die Ausbreitung des Epithelium im menschlichen Körper'' (1838)
''Allgemeine Anatomie: Lehre von den Mischungs- und Formbestandtheilen des menschlichen Körpers''
(1841) * ''Handbuch der rationellen Pathologie'' (1846–1853) * ''Handbuch der systematischen Anatomie des Menschen'' (1855–1871) * ''Vergleichend-anatomische Beschreibung des Kehlkopfes mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Kehlkopfes der Reptilien'' (1839) * ''Pathologische Untersuchungen'' (1840) * ''Zur Anatomie der Niere'' (1863)

References

;Attribution

External links

* Neurotree
Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle Details

WhoNamedIt.
Biography and bibliography
in the

Virtual Laboratory The online project Virtual Laboratory. Essays and Resources on the Experimentalization of Life, 1830-1930, located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, is dedicated to research in the history of the experimentalization of life. T ...

of the

Max Planck Institute for the History of Science The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (German: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte) is a scientific research institute founded in March 1994. It is dedicated to addressing fundamental questions of the history of knowledg ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henle, Friedrich Gustav Jakob Physicians from Bavaria German taxonomists 1809 births 1885 deaths German anatomists German pathologists 19th-century German Jews Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences University of Bonn alumni People from Fürth People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Jewish scientists Physicians of the Charité

Biography

Bibliography

See also

References

External links