Ismar Isidor Boas (28 March 1858 – 15 March 1938) was a German

gastroenterologist Gastroenterology (from the Greek gastḗr- “belly”, -énteron “intestine”, and -logía "study of") is the branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders. The digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract, ...

born in the town of

Exin Exin is a cargo airline based in Lublin, Poland. Its main base is Katowice International Airport. Destinations Exin operates the following services on behalf of DHL Aviation (as of February 2010): ;Denmark *Copenhagen - Copenhagen Airport ...

, then in the

Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

Province of Posen The Province of Posen (german: Provinz Posen, pl, Prowincja Poznańska) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1848 to 1920. Posen was established in 1848 following the Greater Poland Uprising as a successor to the Grand Duchy of Posen, w ...

, today in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. Boas was born in the family of a small merchant and among several siblings he was the only one who was educated. He went to a high school in Zülichau in Silesia and then studied medicine in

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 ...

Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hall ...

and

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 ...

, and subsequently became an assistant to

Carl Anton Ewald Carl Anton Ewald (30 October 1845 – 20 September 1915) was a German gastroenterologist who was a native of Berlin. He was the brother of physiologist Ernst Julius Richard Ewald (1855–1921). In 1870, he earned his medical doctorate in Berlin, ...

(1845-1915) at the Augusta Hospital in Berlin. In 1886, he became a licensed specialist of gastro-intestinal diseases in Berlin. Boas was one of the leading authorities on

gastroenterology Gastroenterology (from the Greek gastḗr- “belly”, -énteron “intestine”, and -logía "study of") is the branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders. The digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract ...

in Europe. Alone, and with Professor Ewald, he made several contributions regarding the

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 ...

and

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 ...

digestion Digestion is the breakdown of large insoluble food molecules into small water-soluble food molecules so that they can be absorbed into the watery blood plasma. In certain organisms, these smaller substances are absorbed through the small intest ...

. He described ''

Lactobacillus acidophilus ''Lactobacillus acidophilus'' (New Latin 'acid-loving milk-bacillus') is a rod-shaped, Gram-positive, homofermentative, anaerobic microbe first isolated from infant feces in the year 1900. The species is most commonly found in humans, specifically ...

'', a

bacillus ''Bacillus'' (Latin "stick") is a genus of Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria, a member of the phylum ''Bacillota'', with 266 named species. The term is also used to describe the shape (rod) of other so-shaped bacteria; and the plural ''Bacilli ...

found in the

gastric The stomach is a muscular, hollow organ in the gastrointestinal tract of humans and many other animals, including several invertebrates. The stomach has a dilated structure and functions as a vital organ in the digestive system. The stomach i ...

juice of individuals with stomach

carcinoma Carcinoma is a malignancy that develops from epithelial cells. Specifically, a carcinoma is a cancer that begins in a tissue that lines the inner or outer surfaces of the body, and that arises from cells originating in the endodermal, mesodermal ...

. This

bacterium Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

is sometimes referred to as the "Boas-Oppler bacillus". In 1895 he founded the ''Archiv für Verdauungs-Krankheiten'', the first medical journal dedicated to gastroenterological topics, and in 1913 established the German gastroenterological society (''Deutsche Gesellschaft für Verdauungs- und Stoffwechselkrankheiten''). He set up a policlinic in the north of Berlin. He also has a handful of eponyms named in his honor, including: * "Boas' algesimeter": an instrument used for determining the sensitiveness over the

epigastrium In anatomy, the epigastrium (or epigastric region) is the upper central region of the abdomen. It is located between the costal margins and the subcostal plane. Pain may be referred to the epigastrium from damage to structures derived from the fo ...

. * " Boas' point": a tender spot to the left of the twelfth

thoracic vertebra In vertebrates, thoracic vertebrae compose the middle segment of the vertebral column, between the cervical vertebrae and the lumbar vertebrae. In humans, there are twelve thoracic vertebrae and they are intermediate in size between the cervical ...

in individuals with

gastric ulcer Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is a break in the inner lining of the stomach, the first part of the small intestine, or sometimes the lower esophagus. An ulcer in the stomach is called a gastric ulcer, while one in the first part of the intestines i ...

. Being a Jew, Boas lost his teaching position in the University of Berlin and left for Vienna in 1936. His wife escaped to Holland. When the Nazis entered Austria, he killed himself with an overdose of the sedative

Veronal Barbital (or barbitone), marketed under the brand names Veronal for the pure acid and Medinal for the sodium salt, was the first commercially available barbiturate. It was used as a sleeping aid (hypnotic) from 1903 until the mid-1950s. The chemic ...

. His wife Sophie and son Kurt, a dermatologist, were killed by the Nazis.

References

Other sources

* Harro Jenss, Guido Gerken, Markus M. Lerch (2013). 100 Jahre Deutsche Gesellschaft für Verdauungs- und Stoffwechselkrankheiten DGVS. August Dreesbach Verlag Munich.
Online
.

@

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 ...

1858 births 1938 deaths People from Kcynia German gastroenterologists 19th-century German Jews People from the Province of Posen Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni Leipzig University alumni 1938 suicides Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany German emigrants to Austria Drug-related suicides in Austria Barbiturates-related deaths German Jews who died in the Holocaust Suicides by Jews during the Holocaust {{Germany-med-bio-stub