upPortrait of Lewandowsky Max Lewandowsky (28 June 1876 – 4 April 1916) was a German

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

, who was a native of

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 ...

, born into a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family.

Personal life

Lewandowsky studied medicine at the Universities of

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approxima ...

and Halle, earning his medical doctorate at Halle in 1898. In 1902 he obtained his post-graduate qualification for

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 in 1904, received training in clinical neurology and

psychiatry Psychiatry is the specialty (medicine), medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psych ...

under

Karl Bonhoeffer Karl Bonhoeffer (; March 31, 1868 – December 4, 1948) was a German neurologist, psychiatrist and physician. Life Bonhoeffer was born in Neresheim in the Kingdom of Württemberg to Friedrich von Bonhoeffer (1828–1907), who worked as judg ...

and

Franz Nissl Franz Alexander Nissl (9 September 1860, in Frankenthal – 11 August 1919, in Munich) was a German psychiatrist and medical researcher. He was a noted neuropathologist. Early life Nissl was born in Frankenthal to Theodor Nissl and Maria Haas. ...

at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

. Afterwards he travelled to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, where he studied under neurologist

Pierre Marie Pierre Marie (9 September 1853 – 13 April 1940) was a French neurology, neurologist and political journalist close to the French Section of the Workers' International, SFIO. Medical Career After finishing medical school, he served as an int ...

. Beginning in 1905 he worked in the Berlin-Friedrichshain hospital.Deutschsprachige Neurologen und Psychiater: Ein biographisch
by Alma Kreuter During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he became infected with

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...

and died.

Academic contributions

Lewandowsky coined the term '' blood–brain barrier'' in 1900, referring to the hypothesized semipermeable membrane which separated the human

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 p ...

from the rest of the body's vasculature, and which prevented the entry of certain compounds from entering the

brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a ve ...

when injected into the bloodstream. Two years earlier, researchers Arthur Biedl and R. Kraus had formed a similar hypothesis when low-concentration "bile salts" failed to affect behavior (and thus, in theory, had failed to enter the brain) when injected into the bloodstream of animals. In 1908, Lewandowsky and Stadelmann published the first report of an individual with calculation impairment due to brain damage (

acalculia Acalculia is an acquired Disability, impairment in which people have difficulty performing simple mathematical tasks, such as adding, subtracting, multiplying and even simply stating which of two numbers is larger. Acalculia is distinguished fro ...

; the term would later be introduced by Salomon Eberhard Henschen in 1925). The individual had trouble performing calculations on paper and mentally. Further, he had difficulty recognizing arithmetic symbols. The report was key in that it established calculation disorders as separate from language disorders, as the two were formerly associated. Beginning in 1910 he, together with

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 Kraep ...

, edited the journal '' Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie''. He was also editor of a handbook of neurology, (1910–1914). Lewandowsky Vogts Brodmann

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewandowsky, Max German neurologists 1876 births 1916 deaths 19th-century German Jews Physicians from Berlin People from the Province of Brandenburg University of Marburg alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Halle alumni Deaths from typhus