Ludwig Merzbacher (9 February 1875 – 30 October 1942) was a German

neuropathologist Neuropathology is the study of disease of nervous system tissue, usually in the form of either small surgical biopsies or whole-body autopsies. Neuropathologists usually work in a department of anatomic pathology, but work closely with the clinic ...

and

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

born in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, Italy. In 1900 he received his medical doctorate from the University of Strassburg, and afterwards remained in Strassburg as an assistant at the

physiological 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 ...

institute. Later he worked at psychiatric clinics in Freiburg (1902–04) and

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 ...

(1904–06), and obtained his habilitation for psychiatry in 1906 at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

. From 1906 until 1910 he worked at the psychiatric clinic in Tübingen, where he was an assistant to Robert Gaupp (1870–1953). During this time period, he also spent several months in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, conducting research in the laboratory of

Alois Alzheimer Alois Alzheimer ( , , ; 14 June 1864 – 19 December 1915) was a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist and a colleague of Emil Kraepelin. Alzheimer is credited with identifying the first published case of "presenile dementia", which Kraepel ...

(1864–1915). Here he performed in-depth analysis on the reaction patterns of scavenger cells ( reactive microglia). In 1910 Merzbacher moved to

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, where he was appointed head of the laboratory in the psychiatric clinic at

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. From 1914 to 1919 he was in charge of the department of pathological anatomy at the ''Clínica Modelö'', and at the beginning of 1924, he was chief physician at the "German hospital" in Buenos Aires. He is remembered for his pathological studies of a dysmyelinating

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 ...

disorder that is now referred to as "

Pelizaeus–Merzbacher disease Pelizaeus– Merzbacher disease is an X-linked neurological disorder that damages oligodendrocytes in the central nervous system. It is caused by mutations in proteolipid protein 1 (''PLP1''), a major myelin protein. It is characterized by a dec ...

" (PMD). This eponymous disease is named after German

balneologist Balneotherapy ( la, balneum "bath") is a method of treating diseases by bathing, a traditional medicine technique usually practiced at spas. Since ancient times, humans have used hot springs, public baths and thermal medicine for therapeutic ef ...

Friedrich Christoph Pelizaeus Friedrich Christoph Pelizaeus (3 April 1851 – 11 August 1942) was a German balneologist and neurologist who was a native of Rietberg. In 1874 he earned his medical doctorate from the University of Würzburg, and afterwards served as an assistant ...

(1851–1942). Merzbacher described his research of the disorder in a 1910 paper titled ''Eine eigenartige familiärhereditäre Erkrankungform''.Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease
@ Who Named It

References

External links

''Ludwig Merzbacher''
@ Who Named It {{DEFAULTSORT:Merzbacher, Ludwig 19th-century German Jews German neurologists German psychiatrists Physicians from Florence 1942 deaths 1875 births German emigrants to Argentina