Friedrich von Recklinghausen

1833 - 1910

The last quarter of the 19th century was a period particularly rich in medical scientists. While many of these
became famous through their discoveries in the new and rapidly developing science of medical bacteriology, the
older discipline of pathological anatomy, particularly in the university centres of Germany, also produced its
share of famous figures. Friedrich von Recklinghausen was among the most brilliant of these, his career
culminating in the post of Professor of Pathology at Strasbourg University. His reputation as a teacher attracted
students not only from all over Germany but from other parts of the world also. Von Recklinghausen was no
narrow specialist; he worked in many fields of pathology and his name is perpetuated in the condition known as
von Recklinghausen's disease, or neurofibromatosis.

Von Recklinghausen's disease

In 1882 von Recklinghausen published his description of neurofibromatosis in a paper which became a
classic. Robert William Smith was the first person to describe the condition accurately in the medical literature
some thirty years previously, but von Recklinghausen's paper added considerable new knowledge of the
condition and its pathology, and subsequently the disease was named after him.

Von Recklinghausen also developed a deep interest in, and was an authority on, the pathology of disease of the
bones. In 1892 he published a paper describing generalised osteitis fibrosa, a disease which some decades
later was found to be caused by a parathyroid tumour. At one time this disease was described as von
Recklinghausen's disease of the bone but the association of his name with two totally different diseases caused
confusion, and its use in describing the second condition was discontinued.
Apart from his many contributions to the pathology of bone disease von Recklinghausen made extensive studies
of many other subjects, including embolism, infarction, and thrombosis. He was also the first to describe fatty
and hyaline degeneration of muscle and in a paper published in 1889 he introduced the word
haemochromatosis.

Silver impregnation of tissues

Von Recklinghausen was not only a great experimental pathologist and authority on pathological anatomy: he
was also a gifted technologist who introduces several technical procedures and instruments. He was one of the
first to use a metallic impregnation method in the preparation of tissue for microscopy. As early as 1862 he
described the use of a weak solution of silver impregnation method for the staining of nervous tissue. During his
investigation of inflammation of the cornea and of the motility of cell he invented a form of moist chamber.

Von Recklinghausen was also interested in the development of blood cells, and extensively studied the
morphology and staining reactions of leucocytes. He was one of several investigators who drew attention to the
amoeboid movement of leucocytes in the bloodstream, and in 1885 published a paper which extended and
supported Huber's work on the relationship of chloroma and leukaemia.

A great teacher

Friedrich Daniel von Recklinghausen was born in 1883, in the town of Gutersloh in the industrial province of
Westphalia. He went to Berlin for his medical education and obtained his degree in 1855. In Berlin he was
impressed by the world famous Rudolf Virchow and, after graduation, spent six years as his assistant at the
Pathological Institute of the Charite Hospital in Berlin, of which Virchow was the director.

In 1865 von Recklinghausen was appointed Professor of Pathological Anatomy at the University of Konigsberg
and a year later moved to a similar position at Wurzburg. When the new University of Strasbourg was founded in
1872 he made his last move, to take up the appointment of Professor of Pathology there, a post he was to retain
until he retired some thirty years later. During his time in Strasbourg his work and reputation as a teacher made
it one of the greatest centres of pathology in Europe. Von Recklinghausen is said to have been a man of the
highest personal character and a kindly soul, loved by all with whom he came in contact. After his retirement in
1906 he continued to live in Strasbourg, the city he had come to know so well and love, until his death in 1910 at
the age of 77.

NOTE: The historical notes above have been abstracted out of 'Founders of Medical Laboratory Science' and are provided for educational
interest purposes.