Carl Heitzmann

Carl Heitzmann (2 October 1836 – 6 December 1896) was an Croatia born Austrian pathologist and dermatologist.

Biography

Heitzmann was born on 2 October 1836 in Vinkovci, Croatia to a Jewish family.^[1] His father, Martin Heitzmann, was a surgeon in the Austrian army. Heitzmann studied medicine in Budapest and Vienna, earning his doctorate in 1859. After graduation, he furthered his studies in Vienna with Franz Schuh (1804–1864), Ferdinand Hebra (1816–1880), Salomon Stricker (1834–1898), and Carl Rokitansky (1804–1878). In Vienna, he performed lectures on morbid anatomy at the university.

When he was unable to succeed Rokitansky as the chair of pathology at Vienna, he emigrated to New York (1874). Here, he established a laboratory for microscopical research, and became one of the founders of the American Dermatological Association (ADA).

Heitzmann is credited for being the first physician to describe the precursor corpuscles of red cells, structures that he referred to as hematoblasts. In 1872 he documented his findings in a treatise titled Studien am Knochen und Knorpel, in which he mentions that his discovery of the hematoblast was in the bone marrow of an injured dog's leg.

Works

Heitzmann was a skilled illustrator and lithographer, being renowned for his work with water colors. Among his artistic works are water color illustrations he created with Anton Elfinger (1821–1864) in Hebra's 1876 Atlas der Hautkrankheiten (Atlas of Skin Diseases). Written works:

• Compendium der chirurgischen Pathologie und Therapie, (Compendium of surgical pathology and therapy; 2 vols., 1864 & 1868)
• Descriptive and Topographical Anatomy of Man in 600 Illustrations, (2 volumes, third edition- 1886)
• Kenntniss der Dünndarmzotten” and “Untersuchungen über das Protoplasma in "Transactions of the Imperial Academy of Sciences", (Vienna, 1867–73)
• Microscopic Morphology of the Animal Body, (1873)
• Microscopic Studies of Inflammations of the Skin, in "Archives of Dermatology" (Philadelphia, 1879)

References

• Karl Holubar (1999). "Carl Heitzmann (1836–1896) and the American Dermatological Association (ADA)". Journal of Investigative Dermatology 113: 861. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1747.1999.00765.x. 
• Stella Fatović-Ferenčić (1999). "The Description of the Hematoblast by the Dermatopathologist Carl Heitzmann in 1872". Journal of Investigative Dermatology 113: 861–862. doi:10.1038/sj.jid.5602913. 
• J. Pagel, ed. (1901). "Heitzmann, Karl". Biographisches Lexikon hervorragender Ärzte des neunzehnten Jahrhundert. Berlin: Urban & Schwarzenberg.  Google translation of German original
• J. McF. Winfield (1920). "Heitzman, Carl". In Howard Atwood Kelly. A cyclopedia of American medical biography. W. B. Saunders Co. p. 513. 

Bibliography

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1892). "Heitzman, Charles". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.