Woldemar Kernig, better known as Vladimir Mikhailovich Kernig ( lv, Voldemārs Kernigs; russian: Владимир Михайлович Керниг; 28 June 1840 – 18 April 1917) was a notable Russian and

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

internist and

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 ...

whose medical discoveries saved thousands of people with meningitis. He is best known for his pioneering work on diagnostics.

Kernig's sign Kernig's sign is a test used in physical examination to look for evidence of irritation of the meninges. The test involves flexing the thighs at the hip, and the knees, at 90 degree angles, and assessing whether subsequent extension of the knee i ...

is named after him.

Biography

Woldemar Kernig was born in St. Petersburg in 1840 to a bookbinder of German origin, Benjamin Mikhail Kernig (1788-1862) and his spouse Wilhelmina Elizaveta (née Person). He received his early education at St. Peter's School from 1852 to 1856. In 1864, he graduated from Universität Dorpat with the degree of Doctor of Medicine for his dissertation about variations in body temperature in sick and healthy people (german: Experimentelle Beiträge zer Kenntniss der Wärmeregulirung beim Menschen). In the same year he began to work at Obukhovskaya Hospital in St. Petersburg, becoming a physician-resident in 1865. From 1873 to 1890, he was a doctor at a school for deaf-mutes, and from 1881 to 1886 he taught internal medicine in medical courses for women. From 1884 he was a consultant in internal medicine for the Office of the Institutions of Empress Maria (russian: Ведомство учреждений императрицы Марии, Vedomstvo uchrezhdeniy imperatritsy Marii). He was chairperson of the Society of German Physicians in St. Petersburg. From 1890 to 1911 he was chief physician at Obukhovskaya Hospital. In 1911 he entered retirement with the title "Respected Consultant of the Hospital." He died in Petrograd on April 19, 1917. He was buried in the

Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery The Smolenskoye Cemetery (in German ''Smolensker Friedhof'') is a Lutheran cemetery on Dekabristov Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is one of the largest and oldest non- orthodox cemeteries in the city. Until the early 20th century it was on ...

Kernig's sign

In Kernig's original 1882 publication, he wrote that in patients with meningitis who are seated upright with hips and knees flexed, extending the knee beyond 135 degrees would be painful. Today patients are put into a

supine In grammar, a supine is a form of verbal noun used in some languages. The term is most often used for Latin, where it is one of the four principal parts of a verb. The word refers to a position of lying on one's back (as opposed to ' prone', l ...

position instead of being seated upright.

Other achievements

In 1904, Kernig described acute pericarditis after severe attacks of

angina pectoris Angina, also known as angina pectoris, is chest pain or pressure, usually caused by insufficient blood flow to the heart muscle (myocardium). It is most commonly a symptom of coronary artery disease. Angina is typically the result of obstru ...

and gave an explanation of its pathogenesis, forming part of the foundational research on

myocardial infarction A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may ...

. He was one of the principal organizers of higher women's medical education in Russia and provided initiative for the establishment of the Medical Institute for Women (russian: Женский медицинский институт, Zhenskiy meditsinskiy institut).

References

Russian State Historical Archive
Collection #272, List #1, Section #48
Erik Amburger Database: Foreigners in Pre-Revolutionary Russia

Publications

* Über Milzabscesse nach Febris recurrens. ''St. Petersburger medicinische Zeitschrift'', 1867, XII. * Über subfebrile Zustände von erheblicher Dauer. ''Deutsches Archiv für klinische Medicin'', Leipzig, 1879, XXIV. * Über ein krankheitssymptom der acuten meningitis. ''St. Petersburger Medizinische Woschenschrift'', 1882;7:398 * Vorläufiger Bericht über die in der Frauenabteilung des Obuchow-Hospitals nach Koch’scher Methode behandelten Schwindsüchtigen. ''Deutsches Archiv für klinische Medicin'', Leipzig, 1891, XVI. * Über subcutane Injectionen an den Lungenspitzen ohne pathologische Veränderungen an denselben. ''Deutsches Archiv für klinische Medicin'', Leipzig, 1898; XXXIV. * Bericht über die mit Tuberculin R im Obuchow-Frauenhospital behandelten Lungenkranken. ''St. Petersburger medicinische Wochenschrift'', 1898; XXIII. * russian: О перикадите и других объективных изменениях в сердце после приступов грудной жабы, O perikardite i drugikh ob'ektivnykh izmeneniyakh v serdtse posle pristupov grudnoy zhaby, link=no (russian: «Русский врач», Russkiy vrach, link=no, 1904, № 44)

External links

http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kernig, Woldemar 1840 births 1917 deaths People from Liepāja People from Courland Governorate Baltic-German people University of Tartu alumni