Werner Spalteholz (27 February 1861 in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

– 12 January 1940 in

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 ...

) was a German anatomist. From 1880 to 1885 he studied medicine at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

, where in 1891 he obtained his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

for anatomy. In 1892 he became an associate professor and curator of the anatomical collections at the university. 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 initially served as chief physician, then as director, of a reserve hospital in

Zwickau Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ' ...

. He was instrumental towards the establishment of the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden. He is credited for developing a method for making human tissue translucent by drenching it in liquids with similar

light refraction In physics, refraction is the redirection of a wave as it passes from one medium to another. The redirection can be caused by the wave's change in speed or by a change in the medium. Refraction of light is the most commonly observed phenomeno ...

properties as the tissue. Examples of transparent organ specimens that he produced were put on display at the First International Hygiene Exposition in Dresden (1911).

Published works

He was the author of the three volume "''Handbuch der Anatomie des Menschen''". It was published over many editions and subsequently translated into English as
"''Hand atlas of human anatomy''"
(1901–03); * Vol. 1. Bones, joints, ligaments. * Vol. 2. Regions, muscles, fasciae, heart, blood-vessels. * Vol. 3. Viscera, brain, nerves, sense-organs. Other noteworthy written efforts by Spalteholz are: * ''Die Vertheilung der Blutgefässe im Muskel'', 1888 – the distribution of blood vessels in muscle. * ''Die Arterien der menschlichen Haut'', 1895 – The blood vessels of the human skin. * ''Verzeichnis der periodischen Schriften medizinischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Inhalts in der Bibliothek, den medizinischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Instituten der Universität Leipzig'' (Based on Werner Spalteholz, continued by

Erhard Riecke Rudolf Erhard Riecke (11 May 1869, in Aschersleben – 15 November 1939, in Leipzig) was a German dermatologist and venereologist. He studied medicine at the universities of University of Munich, Munich and University of Halle, Halle, receivin ...

, 1907) – List of the periodicals of medical and natural sciences in the library, the medical and natural sciences institutes of the University of Leipzig. * ''Über das Durchsichtigmachen von menschlichen und tierischen Präparaten, nebst Anhang: Über Knochenfärbung'', 1911 – On transparentized human and animal specimens, including notes on bone staining.HathiTrust Digital Library
(published works by Erhard Riecke)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spalteholz, Werner 1861 births 1940 deaths Physicians from Dresden Leipzig University alumni Academic staff of Leipzig University German anatomists