Carl Friedländer (19 November 1847, Brieg (Brzeg),

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

– 13 May 1887, Meran (Merano),

County of Tyrol The (Princely) County of Tyrol was an estate of the Holy Roman Empire established about 1140. After 1253, it was ruled by the House of Gorizia and from 1363 by the House of Habsburg. In 1804, the County of Tyrol, unified with the secularised pr ...

) was a German

pathologist Pathology is the study of the causal, 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 us ...

and

microbiologist A microbiologist (from Ancient Greek, Greek ) is a scientist who studies microscopic life forms and processes. This includes study of the growth, interactions and characteristics of Microorganism, microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, f ...

who helped discover the

bacteria 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 ...

l cause of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

in 1882. He also first described

thromboangiitis obliterans Thromboangiitis obliterans, also known as Buerger disease (English ; ) or Winiwarter-Buerger disease, is a recurring progressive inflammation and thrombosis (clotting) of small and medium arteries and veins of the hands and feet. It is strongly a ...

Edwin Klebs Theodor Albrecht Edwin Klebs (6 February 1834 – 23 October 1913) was a German-Swiss microbiologist. He is mainly known for his work on infectious diseases. His works paved the way for the beginning of modern bacteriology, and inspired Louis ...

had seen bacteria in the airways of individuals who died from pneumonia in 1875; however, it was not until 1882 when Friedländer recognized that bacteria (''

Klebsiella pneumoniae ''Klebsiella pneumoniae'' is a Gram-negative, non-motile, encapsulated, lactose-fermenting, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped bacterium. It appears as a mucoid lactose fermenter on MacConkey agar. Although found in the normal flora of the mouth ...

'') were nearly always observable in persons dying from pneumonia that the bold statement was made that these were the likely cause of pneumonia. Friedländer's second communication on the micrococci of pneumonia, which appeared on 15 November 1883, touched off a controversy over the causative agent of pneumonia that continued for the next three years. In this second report he noted that he had examined more than 50 additional cases of pneumonia and that he had identified bacteria in nearly all of them and that sections from which the bacteria were absent were from the lungs of patients dying late in the course of the disease. Friedländer also noted that it was necessary to use special stains (e.g. the Gram Stain) to see the bacteria because using ordinary stains (H&E) nuclei and fibrin stained the same way as bacteria and thus obscured the ability to see the bacteria. As a result, ''Klebsiella pneumoniae'' is often called ''Friedländer's bacterium'' or ''Friedländer's bacillus''.Kohler, W. & Mochmann, H. (1987): Carl Friedländer (1847–1887) and the discovery of the Pneumococcus—in memory of the centenary of his death. Zeitschrift für ärztliche Fortbildung 81(12):615-618 It is unclear if the bacteria that he observed in persons dying of pneumonia were truly all ''

Klebsiella ''Klebsiella'' is a genus of Gram-negative, oxidase-negative, rod-shaped bacteria with a prominent polysaccharide-based capsule. ''Klebsiella'' species are found everywhere in nature. This is thought to be due to distinct sublineages developin ...

'', some may well have been ''

Streptococcus pneumoniae ''Streptococcus pneumoniae'', or pneumococcus, is a Gram-positive, spherical bacteria, alpha-hemolytic (under aerobic conditions) or beta-hemolytic (under anaerobic conditions), aerotolerant anaerobic member of the genus Streptococcus. They are ...

''. In 1886, he introduced the

ampoule An ampoule (also ampul and ampule) is a small sealed vial which is used to contain and preserve a sample, usually a solid or liquid. Ampoules are usually made of glass. Modern ampoules are most commonly used to contain pharmaceuticals and chem ...

in medicine. He died a premature death, aged 39 or 40, after a brief stint with a respiratory disease, believed to be caused by his discovered infectious organism, the Friedlander's Bacillus.

Works

* Friedländer, C. ''Über die Schizomyceten bei der acuten fibrösen Pneumonie.'' Virchow's Arch pathol. Anat. u. Physiol., 87 (2):319-324, Feb. 4, 1882. * Carl Friedländer: ''Arteriitis obliterans.'' Zentralblatt für die medizinischen Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1876, 14.

References

19th-century German physicians German pathologists German microbiologists 1847 births 1887 deaths {{Germany-med-bio-stub