Carl Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Flügge (12 September 1847 – 10 December 1923) was a German

bacteriologist A bacteriologist is a microbiologist, or similarly trained professional, in bacteriology -- a subdivision of microbiology that studies bacteria, typically pathogenic ones. Bacteriologists are interested in studying and learning about bacteria, as ...

and

hygienist Hygiene is a series of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...

. His finding that pathogens were present in expiratory droplets, the eponymous Flügge droplets, laid ground for the concept of

droplet transmission A respiratory droplet is a small aqueous droplet produced by exhalation, consisting of saliva or mucus and other matter derived from respiratory tract surfaces. Respiratory droplets are produced naturally as a result of breathing, speaking, sne ...

as a route for the spread of respiratory infectious diseases.

Early life and education

Carl Flügge was a native of

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

. He studied medicine in

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

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 ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, and in 1878 was a lecturer of

hygiene Hygiene is a series of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

Career

In 1881 Flügge became the first chair of hygiene at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded i ...

, and afterwards a professor at the Universities of Breslau and

, where he succeeded

Max Rubner Max Rubner (2 June 1854, Munich27 April 1932, Berlin) was a German physiologist and hygienist. Academic career He studied at the University of Munich and worked as an assistant under Adolf von Baeyer and Carl von Voit (doctorate 1878). Lat ...

at the Department of Hygiene. Flügge was a colleague of

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

Robert Koch, with whom he co-edited the journal ''Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten''. Two of his better-known assistants at Breslau were

Wolfgang Weichardt Julius Wolfgang Weichardt (13 May 1875 – 1943) was a German bacteriologist who was a native of Altenburg, Thüringen. In 1900 he received his doctorate at Breslau, where he became an assistant to Carl Flügge (1847-1923) at the laboratory for ...

(1875–1943) and Walther Kruse (1864–1943).

Legacy

Flügge is known for advocating hygiene as an independent medical discipline, and is remembered for performing extensive research involving the transmission of infectious diseases such as

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or deat ...

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...

and cholera. In the 1890s, he demonstrated that even during "quiet speech", minute droplets, the Flügge droplets are sprayed into the air. This laid ground to the concept of

, still in use in the 21 st century. The finding was instrumental in

Jan Mikulicz-Radecki Jan Mikulicz-Radecki (german: Johann Freiherr von Mikulicz-Radecki) was a German-Polish-Austrian surgeon who worked mainly in the German Empire. He was born on 16 May 1850 in Czerniowce in the Austrian Empire (present-day Chernivtsi in Ukraine ...

's advocacy of surgical

gauze Gauze is a thin, translucent fabric with a loose open weave. In technical terms "gauze" is a weave structure in which the weft yarns are arranged in pairs and are crossed before and after each warp yarn keeping the weft firmly in place ...

masks in 1897.

Publications

Among his publications are two important books on hygiene: * * Other works include: * *
Part 1Part 2
Articles include:
''Die Verbreitung der Phthise durch staubförmiges Sputum und durch beim Husten verspritzte Tröpfchen''
Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten volume 30, pages 107–124 (1899)

References

Bibliography

Lehrbuch der hygienischen Untersuchungsmethoden

The Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life
* * German microbiologists Hygienists 1847 births 1923 deaths University of Göttingen faculty Humboldt University of Berlin faculty University of Breslau faculty Medical Microbiology and Immunology editors {{Germany-med-bio-stub