Erich Hoffmann

Erich Hoffmann (25 April 1868 – 8 May 1959) was a German dermatologist who was a native of Witzmitz, Pomerania.

He studied medicine at the Berlin Military Academy, and was later a professor at the Universities of Halle and Bonn.

Hoffmann is remembered for his research performed with zoologist Fritz Schaudinn (1871-1906) at the Charité Clinic in Berlin. In 1905 Schaudinn and Hoffmann discovered the bacterium that was responsible for syphilis, a spiral-shaped spirochete called Treponema pallidum, which they first called Spirochaeta pallida.[1][2] The organism was removed from a papule in the vulva of a woman with secondary syphilis. The two doctors documented their findings in a treatise called Vorläufiger Bericht über das Vorkommen von Spirochaeten in syphilitischen Krankheitsprodukten und bei Papillome.[3]

Hoffmann left Germany during the era of National Socialism, but returned to Bonn after the war and established a laboratory. In the late 1940s he published two books about his life in medicine, titled "Wollen und Schaffen" and "Ringen um Vollendung".

Selected publications
  • Hoffmann, Erich (1906). Die Ätiologie der Syphilis. Berlin: Verlag von Julius Springer.

References
  1. Kohl, P. K.; Winzer, I. (February 2005). "[The 100 years since discovery of Spirochaeta pallida]". Der Hautarzt; Zeitschrift Fur Dermatologie, Venerologie, Und Verwandte Gebiete. 56 (2): 112–115. doi:10.1007/s00105-004-0892-3. ISSN 0017-8470. PMID 15657727.
  2. Souza, Elemir Macedo de (October 2005). "A hundred years ago, the discovery of Treponema pallidum". Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia. 80: 547–548. doi:10.1590/S0365-05962005000600017. ISSN 0365-0596.
  3. Fritz Richard Schaudinn, Erich Hoffmann: Vorläufiger Bericht über das Vorkommen von Spirochaeten in syphilitischen Krankheitsprodukten und bei Papillomen. Arbeiten aus dem kaiserlichen Gesundheitsamtes (Berlin), vol. 22, pp. 527–534, 1905.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.