Jakob Ernst Arthur Böttcher (13 July 1831 – 10 August 1889) was a Baltic German

pathologist Pathology is the study of disease. 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 used in the context of modern medical treatme ...

and

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

who was a native of Bauska, in what was then the Courland Governorate (present-day

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

). He worked primarily within the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. In 1856 he earned his medical doctorate from the University of Dorpat (present-day University of Tartu in

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

) with a dissertation on the nerve supply to the

inner ear The inner ear (internal ear, auris interna) is the innermost part of the vertebrate ear. In vertebrates, the inner ear is mainly responsible for sound detection and balance. In mammals, it consists of the bony labyrinth, a hollow cavity in the ...

cochlea The cochlea is the part of the inner ear involved in hearing. It is a spiral-shaped cavity in the bony labyrinth, in humans making 2.75 turns around its axis, the modiolus (cochlea), modiolus. A core component of the cochlea is the organ of Cort ...

. He furthered his studies with journeys to Germany, France and Austria, and in 1862 he became a full professor of general pathology and

pathological anatomy Anatomical pathology (''Commonwealth'') or anatomic pathology (''U.S.'') is a medical specialty that is concerned with the diagnosis of disease based on the gross examination, macroscopic, Histopathology, microscopic, biochemical, immu ...

Dorpat Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the ...

. From 1871 to 1877 he was editor of the magazine ''Dorpater Medicinische Zeitschrift''. Böttcher is largely known for his anatomical investigations of the

, particularly studies involving the structure of the

reticular lamina Reticular fibers, reticular fibres or reticulin is a type of fiber in connective tissue composed of type III collagen secreted by reticular cells. They are mainly composed of reticulin protein and form a network or mesh. Reticular fibers cross ...

and

nerve fiber An axon (from Greek ἄξων ''áxōn'', axis) or nerve fiber (or nerve fibre: see spelling differences) is a long, slender projection of a nerve cell, or neuron, in vertebrates, that typically conducts electrical impulses known as action pot ...

s of the

organ of Corti The organ of Corti, or spiral organ, is the receptor organ for hearing and is located in the mammalian cochlea. This highly varied strip of epithelial cells allows for transduction of auditory signals into nerve impulses' action potential. Trans ...

. Today his name is associated with the eponymous " Bottcher cells", which are cells of the

basilar membrane The basilar membrane is a stiff structural element within the cochlea of the inner ear which separates two liquid-filled tubes that run along the coil of the cochlea, the scala media and the scala tympani. The basilar membrane moves up and down ...

of the

. Other anatomical terms that contain his name are: * Böttcher's canal: Known today as the ''ductus utriculosaccularis'' or as the utriculo- saccular duct. This duct connects the utricle with the

endolymphatic duct From the posterior wall of the saccule a canal, the endolymphatic duct, is given off; this duct is joined by the ductus utriculosaccularis, and then passes along the aquaeductus vestibuli and ends in a blind pouch ( endolymphatic sac) on the pos ...

a short distance from the

saccule The saccule (Latin: sacculus) is a bed of sensory cells in the inner ear that detects linear acceleration and head tilting in the vertical plane, and converts these vibrations into electrical impulses to be interpreted by the brain. When the he ...

. * Böttcher's ganglion:

Ganglion A ganglion (: ganglia) is a group of neuron cell bodies in the peripheral nervous system. In the somatic nervous system, this includes dorsal root ganglia and trigeminal ganglia among a few others. In the autonomic nervous system, there are ...

on the

cochlear nerve The cochlear nerve (also auditory nerve or acoustic nerve) is one of two parts of the vestibulocochlear nerve, a cranial nerve present in amniotes, the other part being the vestibular nerve. The cochlear nerve carries auditory sensory information ...

in the internal auditory meatus. * Böttcher's space: Also known as the endolymphatic sac; the blind pouch at the end of the

. * Charcot-Böttcher filaments: Spindle-shaped crystalloids found in human

Sertoli cells Sertoli cells are a type of sustentacular "nurse" cell found in human testes which contribute to the process of spermatogenesis (the production of sperm) as a structural component of the seminiferous tubules. They are activated by follicle-sti ...

. They measure 10 to 25 μm in length. Named in conjunction with

neurologist Neurology (from , "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 nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

Jean-Martin Charcot Jean-Martin Charcot (; 29 November 1825 – 16 August 1893) was a French neurology, neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. He worked on groundbreaking work about hypnosis and hysteria, in particular with his hysteria patient Louise A ...

(1825-1893).

Selected publications

* ''Observationes microscopicae de ratione qua nervus cochleae mammalium terminator'', 1856. * ''Mittheilung über einen bester noch unbekannten Blasenwurm'', 1862. * ''Ueber die Entwickelung und Bau des Gehörlabyrinths nach Untersuchungen an Säugethieren'', 1869. * ''Kritische Bemerkungen und neue Beiträge zur Litteratur des Gehörlabyrinths'', 1872. * ''Neue Untersuchungen über die rothen Blutkörperchen'', 1876.

References

Pagel: Biographical Dictionary
(translated biography)
Sketches of Otohistory
by Jochen Schacht and Joseph E. Hawkins

Sources

*Thomas Lathrop Stedman. Stedman's Medical Eponyms. 2005. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Page 91 (definition of eponyms)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bottcher, Arthur 1831 births 1889 deaths Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire People from Bauska Pathologists from the Russian Empire Anatomists from the Russian Empire Academic staff of the University of Tartu University of Tartu alumni People from Courland Governorate

See also

Selected publications

References

Sources

External links