Frerichs, Friedrich Theodor, 1819-1885

Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs (24 March 1819 – 14 March 1885) was a German pathologist born in Aurich. After earning his medical degree from the University of Göttingen in 1841, he returned to Aurich, where he spent several years working as an optician. In 1846 he returned to the University of Göttingen as an instructor, afterwards serving as 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 better 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), Friedrich Albin Hoffmann (1843–1924), Wilhelm Ebstein (1836–1912) and Hugo Rühle (1824–1888). 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 yellow atrophy of the liver. He also described the anatomical changes that place in liver cirrhosis and malaria perniciosa. 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.