In the history of medicine, Alfred Wilhelm Volkmann is one of the names that keeps returning.
The record lists Alfred Wilhelm Volkmann as German physiologist, anatomist, and philosopher (1801-1877).
Alfred Wilhelm Volkmann was born at Leipzig in 1801. His recorded nationality is Kingdom of Saxony. He trained at Leipzig University and Sächsisches Landesgymnasium Sankt Afra zu Meißen.
Anaesthesia, antisepsis and germ theory arrived within fifty years and made modern surgery possible for the first time.
His posts were held at Imperial University of Dorpat, Leipzig University and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.
The recorded fields of work are physiology.
The test of medical work is whether practice changed, not whether the argument was elegant.
That the work was done from Kingdom of Saxony matters: hospitals, training and research funding are unevenly distributed, and they decide which questions can be asked.
Alfred Wilhelm Volkmann died in 1877, aged 76. What survives is the change in practice, which is how a medical life is actually measured.
Achievements
- Held posts at Imperial University of Dorpat, Leipzig University and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
- Fields: physiology
