Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle

Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle ( born July 19, 1809 in Fuerth, † May 13, 1885 in Göttingen ) was a German anatomist, pathologist and physician. As an expert on the microscope, he discovered later named after him Henle's loop in the kidney. In his manual of systematic human anatomy we find the first representation of dividing nuclei, but even without their interpretation.

Life

Henle was born in 1809 the son of a respected Jewish merchant family in Fuerth, his grandfather was Elkan Henle. Because of the lack of development opportunities for Jewish children in Bavaria, the family moved into the Rhineland. Jakob Henle studied in Bonn and Heidelberg medicine.

After receiving his doctorate in 1832 he became assistant and prosector at the Institute of Johannes Peter Müller in Berlin. Henle 1840 was appointed professor of anatomy and physiology at the University of Zurich. He held there a lecture on histology. He was considered a master of the microscope and brought the young science of histology in a vital way.

1844 followed the appointment at the University of Heidelberg on the second ordinary chair of anatomy and physiology. Here he wrote his manual of rational pathology, here he held in 1848 and that famous anthropological College which one of his listeners, the Swiss poet Gottfried Keller, so much impressed that he described it in his novel Green Henry. With the amendment Regine Keller sat also the first wife of Henle, Elise Egloff, a literary monument.

Henle took over in 1852 the management of the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Göttingen. There lived, researched and taught until his death in 1885. In 1855 he published his famous manual of systematic human anatomy.

A decisive contribution came Henle also the anatomy, histology and pathology of the adrenal cortex by the development of color with chrome acidic solution of potash 1865.

Henle coined the terms contagium vivum or contagium animatum and thus the theory of micro-organisms as the cause of infectious diseases. Accordingly, the basic rules of the definition of a pathogen, the Henle - Koch's postulates, named after him and his student Robert Koch.

A commemorative plaque was placed before 1888 at his former residence in Göttingen and in 1942 was removed in the Nazi era because of his Jewish origin. After the war, the plaque was mounted again. Also at the birthplace Henle in the Helmstraße 9 there is a plaque in Fürth. The Anatomical Institute at Heidelberg Honors Henle with a bust on the first floor before the dissection. The medical faculty of the University of Göttingen adds annually to honor the Jacob Henle Medal. A medical center in Lünen is called Jacob Henle house.

Works

• About Narcine, a new genus Electrischer rays. together with a synopsis of the electrical rays. Eichler, Berlin 1834 ( doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.6737 digitized )
• Comparative anatomical description of the larynx: with consideration of the larynx of reptiles. Leopold Voss, Leipzig 1839 ( doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.64345 digitized )
• Systematic description of the Plagiostomen. Veit, Berlin 1834 ( doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.6906 digitized )