Max Israel Bielschowsky (20 February 1869 – 15 August 1940) was a German
neuropathologist born in
Breslau.
After receiving his medical doctorate from the
University of Munich in 1893, he worked with
Ludwig Edinger
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Ludwig Edinger (13 April 1855 – 26 January 1918) was an influential German anatomist and neurologist and co-founder of the University of Frankfurt. In 1914 he was also appointed the first German professor of neurology.
Edinger was born i ...
(1855–1918) at the
Senckenberg
The Naturmuseum Senckenberg is a museum of natural history, located in Frankfurt am Main. It is the second-largest of its type in Germany. The museum contains a large and diverse collection of birds with 90,000 bird skins, 5,050 egg sets, 17, ...
Pathology Institute in
Frankfurt-am-Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian dialects, Hessian: , "Franks, Frank ford (crossing), ford on the Main (river), Main"), is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as o ...
. At Senckenberg he learned
histological staining techniques from
Carl Weigert
Karl Weigert, Carl Weigert (19 March 1845 in Münsterberg in Silesia – 5 August 1904 in Frankfurt am Main) was a German Jewish pathologist. His nephew was Fritz Weigert and his cousin was Paul Ehrlich.
He received his education at the uni ...
(1845–1904). From 1896 to 1904 he worked in
Emanuel Mendel's (1839–1907) psychiatric laboratory in
Berlin. In 1904 he joined
Oskar Vogt (1870–1959) at the
neurobiological laboratory at the
University of Berlin, where he remained until 1933. Later in his career he worked at the psychiatric clinic at the
University of Utrecht, and at the
Cajal Institute in
Madrid.
He emigrated to the UK, where he died on 15 August 1940 in the Greater London area at 71 years of age. His oldest son, Franz David Bielschowsky, also emigrated to
Sheffield, UK and subsequently to
Dunedin, New Zealand where he pursued an eminent career in cancer research.
A cousin of Max Bielschowsky,
Albert Bielschowsky
Albert Bielschowsky ( i:lšofski 3 January 1847 – 21 October 1902) was a German literary historian (''Literaturwissenschaftler''). He is known for his writings concerning Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Bielschowsky was born in Namslau (Namysłów ...
(1847–1902), was a biographer of
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Bielschowsky made important contributions in his research of
tuberous sclerosis
Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a rare multisystem autosomal dominant genetic disease that causes non-cancerous tumours to grow in the brain and on other vital organs such as the kidneys, heart, liver, eyes, lungs and skin. A combination ...
,
amaurotic idiocy,
paralysis agitans,
Huntington’s chorea and
myotonia congenita. He is remembered for his
histopathological work with
disseminated sclerosis, the use of an histological
silver stain for impregnation of nerve fibers, and with
Stanley Cobb
Stanley Cobb (December 10, 1887 – February 25, 1968) was a neurologist and could be considered "the founder of biological psychiatry in the United States".
Early life
Cobb was born on December 10, 1887, in Brookline, Massachusetts, to John Can ...
, the development of intravital
silver staining. The eponymous "Bielschowsky silver stain" technique was an improvement on the method developed by
Ramon y Cajal (1852–1934).
[
]
Selected written works
* ''Die Silberimprägnation der Achsencylinder''; Neurologisches Zentralblatt, Leipzig, 1902, 21: 579–84. Neurologisches Zentralblatt, Leipzig, 1903, 22: 997–1006; (Bielschowsky stains).
* ''Allgemeine Histologie und Histopathologie des Nervensystems''. In: Max Lewandowsky (publisher), Handbuch der Neurologie. Volume 1, Berlin, 1910.
* ''Herpes Zoster''. In: Max Lewandowsky (publisher): Handbuch der Neurologie. Volume 5, Berlin, 1910.
* ''Über spätinfantile familiäre amaurotische Idiotie mit Kleinhirnsymptomen''. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Nervenheilkunde, 1914, 50: 7–29. (Bielschowsky’s amaurotic idiocy).
See also
*Bielschowsky stain
The Bielschowsky technique is a silver staining method used in histochemistry for the visualization of nerve fibers, including multipolar interneurons in the cerebellum.
The method is attributed to German neurologist and neurohistologist Max Biels ...
* Pathology
* List of pathologists
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bielschowsky, Max
1869 births
1940 deaths
German pathologists
Polish pathologists
German histologists
Physicians from Wrocław
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom
People from the Province of Silesia