Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs

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Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs (March 24, 1819 - March 14, 1885) was a German pathologist who was born in Aurich. After earning his medical degree from the University of Göttingen in 1841, he returned to Aurich and spent the next four years there as an optician. In 1846 he returned to teach classes at the University of Göttingen, and afterwards was a professor at the Universities of Kiel (1850) and Breslau (1852). In 1859 he succeeded Johann Lukas Schönlein as head physician at the Charité in Berlin. He remained at the Charité until his death in 1885. Some of his well-known assistants and students included Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915), Adolf Weil (1848-1916), Paul Langerhans (1847-1888), Bernhard Naunyn (1839-1925), Heinrich Irenaeus Quincke (1842-1922) and Wilhelm Ebstein (1836-1912).

Frerichs made many contributions to medical science, and is especially known for his research of kidney and liver diseases. He published the first German textbook of nephrology, and performed microscopic research of Bright's disease. He was the first to identify the three primary stages of Bright's disease and how the condition leads to fibrosis and atrophy. Frerichs gave the first clinical description of progressive familial hepatolenticular degeneration (now known as Wilson's disease), and also discovered the presence of leucine and tyrosine in urine involving atrophy of the liver. He also described the anatomical changes that place in liver cirrhosis.

Frerichs performed pioneer research of multiple sclerosis, and described nystagmus as a symptom of the disease. He also provided an early clinical description of a link between multiple sclerosis and certain mental disorders.

Written works

De polyporum structura penitiori. Göttingen, 1843.
Untersuchungen über Galle in physiologischer und pathologischer Beziehung. Göttingen, 1845.
Commentatio de natura miasmatis palustris.Habilitation thesis, Göttingen, 1845.
Über Gallert- und Colloidgeschwülste. 1847.
Über das Mass des Stoffwechsels, sowie über die Verwendung der Stickstoffhaltigen und stickstoffreien Nahrungsstoffe. Archiv für Anatomie, Physiologie und wissenschaftliche Medicin, Leipzig, 1849.
Ueber Hirnsklerose. Archiv für die gesammte Medicin, Jena, 1849, 10: 334-350
Die Bright’sche Nierenkrankheit und deren Behandlung. Braunschweig, Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn, 1851
Über den Diabetes. Berlin, 1884.