Eugen Woldemar Bostroem was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 pathologist. He was a native of Fellin

Viljandi

Viljandi is a town and municipality in southern Estonia with a population of 19,150 . It is the capital of Viljandi County. The town was first mentioned in 1283, upon being granted its town charter by Wilhelm von Endorpe....

 (nowadays Viljandi), Livonia

Livonia

Livonia is a historic region along the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It was once the land of the Finnic Livonians inhabiting the principal ancient Livonian County Metsepole with its center at Turaida...

). He studied medicine in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 and Erlangen

Erlangen

Erlangen is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located at the confluence of the river Regnitz and its large tributary, the Untere Schwabach.Erlangen has more than 100,000 inhabitants....

, receiving his degree in 1876. Afterwards he was an assistant to Friedrich Albert von Zenker

Friedrich Albert von Zenker

Friedrich Albert von Zenker was a German pathologist and physician, celebrated for his discovery of trichinosis. He was born in Dresden, and was educated in Leipzig and Heidelberg. Attached to the city hospital of Dresden in 1851, he added, in 1855, the duties of professor of pathological...

 (1825-1898) at the pathology institute in Erlangen. From 1883 to 1926 he was a professor of general pathology

Pathology

Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....

 and pathological anatomy in Gießen

Gießen

Gießen, also spelt Giessen is a town in the German federal state of Hesse, capital of both the district of Gießen and the administrative region of Gießen...

.

In 1890 Bostroem reportedly isolated the causative organism of actinomycosis

Actinomycosis

Actinomycosis is an infectious bacterial disease caused by Actinomyces species such as Actinomyces israelii or A. gerencseriae. It can also be caused by Propionibacterium propionicus, and the condition is likely to be polymicrobial aerobic anaerobic infection.Actinomycosis occurs rarely in humans...

 from a culture of grain, grasses, and soil. After Bostroem's discovery there was a general misconception that actinomycosis was a mycosis

Mycosis

A mycosis is a fungal infection of animals, including humans. Mycoses are common, and a variety of environmental and physiological conditions can contribute to the development of fungal diseases...

 that affected individuals who chewed grass or straw. The agents of actinomycosis are now known to be endogenous

Endogenous

Endogenous substances are those that originate from within an organism, tissue, or cell. Endogenous retroviruses are caused by ancient infections of germ cells in humans, mammals and other vertebrates...

 organisms of the mucous membranes, in most cases Actinomyces israelii

Actinomyces israelii

Actinomyces israelii is a species of Actinomyces.Actinomycosis is most frequently caused by Actinomyces israelii and is sometimes known as the "most misdiagnosed disease," as it is frequently confused with neoplasms. A. israelii is a normal colonizer of the vagina, colon, and mouth...

, a species named after surgeon

Surgeon

In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

 James Israel

James Israel

James Adolf Israel was a German surgeon who was a native of Berlin. In 1870 he received his medical doctorate from Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität. He studied under von Bernhard Rudolf Konrad von Langenbeck and Ludwig Traube...

, who first discovered its presence in humans in the late 1870s.

In 1883 Bostroem was the first to describe a rare condition known as splenogonadal fusion

Splenogonadal fusion

Splenogonadal fusion is a rare congenital malformation that involves an abnormal connection between the spleen and the gonad. It manifests itself as a mass consisting of splenic and testicular or ovarian tissue...

. Since his discovery, approximately only 150 cases have been documented.

Selected writings

• Beiträge zur pathologischen Anatomie der Nieren (Contributions to the pathological anatomy of the kidneys), Freiburg i.B. and Tübingen, 1884.
• Traumaticismus und Parasitismus als ursachen
• Untersuchungen über die Aktinomykose des Menschen (Investigations on Actinomycosis in Humans), 1891.