![Karl Christian Aubel - Portrait Gustav Adolf Michaelis](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Karl_Christian_Aubel_-_Portrait_Gustav_Adolf_Michaelis.jpg)
Gustav Adolf Michaelis (9 July 1798 – 8 August 1848) was a German
obstetrician
Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgic ...
who was a native of
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...
. He was the founder and establisher of the
Michaelis’ Rhomboid.
Biography
Education and Career
Gustav Adolf Michaelis was born on the 9th of July, 1798, to an obstetrician Gottfried Philipp Michaelis. Gustav's uncle Christian Rudolf Wiedemann also was an obstetrician, after Philipp's death in 1811 he raised his nephew. Gustav Michaelis graduated from Kiel medical school in 1820 and continued his medical studies in Paris. Among his teachers were
Konrad Johann Martin Langenbeck (1776-1851) and obstetrician
Friedrich Benjamin Osiander
Friedrich Benjamin Osiander (9 February 1759, Zell unter Aichelberg – 25 May 1822, Göttingen) was an obstetrician at Göttingen, who invented uterine traction forceps. He was the father of obstetrician Johann Friedrich Osiander.
He studied ...
(1759-1822). In 1823 he returned to Kiel and served as an assistant to his uncle, who held the position of director at the city lying-in hospital.
In 1828 he married Julia Jahn, a musician. In 1829 she gave birth to daughter Emma, in 1835 son
Adolf Michaelis Adolf Michaelis (22 June 1835 – 12 August 1910) was a German classical scholar, a professor of art history at the University of Strasbourg from 1872, who helped establish the connoisseurship of Ancient Greek sculpture and Roman sculpture on their ...
was born. Later he would become a prominent
archaeologist.
In 1836 Michaelis was promoted to a city chief physician. In 1841 he inherited from his uncle the director's post at local maternity hospital. A year later he started reading lectures in local medical school, also established by Christian Rudolf Wiedemann.
Discoveries
Michaelis was a pioneer of scientific obstetrics, remembered for his work in the field of
pelvimetry
Pelvimetry is the measurement of the female pelvis. It can theoretically identify cephalo-pelvic disproportion, which is when the capacity of the pelvis is inadequate to allow the fetus to negotiate the birth canal. However, clinical evidence indi ...
. He performed extensive research on difficulties associated with a "narrow
pelvis" and its relationship to
childbirth
Childbirth, also known as labour and delivery, is the ending of pregnancy where one or more babies exits the internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section. In 2019, there were about 140.11 million births glob ...
, of which he documented in a treatise called ''Das Enge Becken: Nach eigenen Beobachtungen und Untersuchungen''. The book was published four years after his death by his successor Theodor Litzman. The
rhombus of Michaelis
The rhombus of Michaelis, also known as the Michaelis-Raute or the quadrilateral of Michaelis, is a rhombus-shaped contour (also referred to as kite-shaped or diamond shaped) that is sometimes visible on the lower human back. The rhombus is define ...
, named after him, is a contour in the
coccyx
The coccyx ( : coccyges or coccyxes), commonly referred to as the tailbone, is the final segment of the vertebral column in all apes, and analogous structures in certain other mammals such as horses. In tailless primates (e.g. humans and othe ...
/
sacrum region that is
rhombus
In plane Euclidean geometry, a rhombus (plural rhombi or rhombuses) is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. Another name is equilateral quadrilateral, since equilateral means that all of its sides are equal in length. The ...
-shaped. Sometimes it is referred to as the "
quadrilateral
In geometry a quadrilateral is a four-sided polygon, having four edges (sides) and four corners (vertices). The word is derived from the Latin words ''quadri'', a variant of four, and ''latus'', meaning "side". It is also called a tetragon, ...
of Michaelis".
Michaelis had a wide range of interests, he studied archaeology and mathematics. In 1830 he published his work Über das Leuchten der Ostsee, where for the first time described the fluorescent microorganisms in the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...
.
Michaelis and Semmelweis
After being informed of
Ignaz Semmelweis
Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (; hu, Semmelweis Ignác Fülöp ; 1 July 1818 – 13 August 1865) was a Hungarian physician and scientist, who was an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures. Described as the "saviour of mothers", he discovered that t ...
's theory of
prophylaxis
Preventive healthcare, or prophylaxis, consists of measures taken for the purposes of disease prevention.Hugh R. Leavell and E. Gurney Clark as "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical and mental hea ...
for prevention of
puerperal fever, Michaelis was one of the first obstetricians to adopt the practice of compulsory
chlorine
Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine i ...
handwashing. He later became severely depressed over the number of women (including a beloved niece) who had died from puerperal fever due to unsanitary obstetrical practices, and on 8 August 1848, Michaelis committed suicide in
Lehrte, Germany.
Legacy
After his death, his position at Kiel was filled by
Carl Conrad Theodor Litzmann
Carl Conrad Theodor Litzmann (7 October 1815 – 24 February 1890) was a German obstetrician and gynecologist born in Gadebusch, Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
He studied medicine in Halle, Würzburg and Berlin. In 1845 became an asso ...
(1815-1890). Today, the "Michaelis Midwifery School" at the
University of Kiel
Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in ...
is named in his honor.
References
Sources
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Links
Dorlands Medical Dictionary(definition of eponym)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Michaelis, Gustav Adolf
1798 births
1848 deaths
German obstetricians
Physicians from Kiel
People from the Duchy of Holstein
Academic staff of the University of Kiel