Henry Koplik was an American physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

. He was educated at the College of the City of New York

City College of New York

The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...

 and at the College of Physicians and Surgeons

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, often known as P&S, is a graduate school of Columbia University that is located on the health sciences campus in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan...

, and earned his medical degree in 1881. He took a postgraduate course at the universities of 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...

, Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

, and Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, and upon his return to America, established himself as a physician in New York in 1883. There he became connected with Bellevue Hospital, the Good Samaritan Dispensary, and other medical institutions. In 1899, he was hired as an assistant professor of pediatrics at Bellevue Medical College.

Koplik was the first to describe an early diagnostic sign in measles

Measles

Measles, also known as rubeola or morbilli, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...

, since known as "Koplik's spots

Koplik's spots

Koplik spots are a prodromic viral enanthem of measles manifesting two days before the measles rash itself. They are characterized as clustered, white lesions on the buccal mucosa near each Stenson's duct and are pathognomonic for measles...

"; and he found, too, the bacillus of whooping-cough. He also introduced the free delivery of Pasteurized milk to the needy poor, in which he was followed later by Nathan Straus

Nathan Straus

Nathan Straus was an American merchant and philanthropist who co-owned two of New York City's biggest department stores – R.H...

.

Besides essays in the medical journals, Koplik published his "Diseases of Infancy and Childhood" in 1902.