Edward Flatau

Edward Flatau (* December 27, 1869 in Płock Poland, † June 7, 1932 in Warsaw) was a Polish physician. Flatau is still one of the most famous Polish neurologist who established the neurobiological and neuropathological sciences in his home country. He supported the establishment of Neurological and Psychiatric Section of the Warsaw Medical Society and influenced the creation of the Polish magazine " Neurologia Polska " and " Warszawskie Czasopismo Lekarskie ".

In 1886 he began his studies in Moscow, where he was particularly influenced by the psychiatrist Sergei Sergeyevich Korsakov and the neurologist Alexei Yakovlevich Kozhevnikov. After graduating in 1892 he came 1893 to Berlin, where until 1899 he continued his education at Emanuel Mendel, Heinrich Wilhelm Waldeyer, the internist Alfred Goldscheider and Ernst Viktor von Leyden and the neurologist Hermann Oppenheim.

With the Berlin neurologist Louis Jacobsohn - Lask Flatau said the interest in neuroanatomy. Already in 1894 he published the Atlas of the human brain and the fiber orientation, which was published in German, English, French, Russian and Polish in 1896. He introduced in 1897 the law of the eccentric mounting of the long paths on which was the subject of his PhD in 1899 in Moscow, and worked in particular on the pyramidal tract, tumors of the spinal cord, multiple sclerosis, meningitis, and neurological disease in tuberculosis. With his teacher Alfred Goldscheider he published in 1898 Normal and pathological anatomy of the nerve cells, a work on the structure of nerve cells and their change under mechanical, thermal and chemical influences: the character of the change gave information about the types of influences. He defended the Neuro theory, for which he was particularly interested since 1895.

A call to the neurological department of the University of Buenos Aires refused Flatau and returned back to Warsaw in 1899. In his apartment, he established a private laboratory microscopic one, worked as Konsiliarius in different Warsaw hospitals and had a large private practice. In 1904 he became head of the Neurological Clinic of the Jewish Hospital in Warsaw and there formed numerous Neurologists. He designed neurological examination schemes, which he published in Warsaw and Berlin in 1915.

The doctrine Flatau was very important, he encouraged his students and young colleagues intensive. He himself has been described as modest; his motto was a quote Nothnagel: Only a good person can be a good doctor. In 1911 he taught at the Warsaw Psychological Society a a neurological laboratory and in 1913 the first chairman of the Neurobiology Department of the Warsaw Scientific Society, from 1919 Chairman of the Nenski Institute for Experimental Biology. During the First World War Flatau worked with his friend, the neurologist Samuel Goldflam. He published in 1912 in a Polish and a German edition on migraine Its still best-known book.

Works

• Atlas of the human brain and the fiber orientation. 2nd edition Publisher Karger, Berlin 1899 (together with Emanuel Mendel ).
• Handbook of anatomy and comparative anatomy of the central nervous system of mammals. Publishing Karger, Berlin 1899 (together with Louis Jacobsohn - Lask ).
• The migraine. J. Springer, Berlin 1912 (monographs of the total areas of neurology and psychiatry, Vol 2).
• Neuritis and polyneuritis (Handbook of special pathology and therapy, 11, vol 3, Dept. 3-4). Publisher A. Hölder, Vienna 1899-1900 (together with Ernst Julius Remak; Flatau wrote the chapter on anatomy and pathological anatomy).

• Normal and pathological anatomy of the nerve cells. On the basis of recent research. Publisher Kornfeld, Berlin 1898 ( with Alfred Goldscheider ).
• Tumeurs de la moelle épinière et de la colonne vertébrale. Paris 1910. 175 S.

• Handbook of pathological anatomy of the nervous system. Publishing Karger, Berlin 1903/ 04 ( together with Louis Jacobsohn - Lask, Karl Aanders Petrén and Lazar Solomon Petrovich Minor).
• Annual report on the performance and progress in the field of neurology and psychiatry. 1899 (together with Louis Jacobsohn - Lask and Emanuel Mendel ).