Max von Gruber
Encyclopedia
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
.
As a bacteriologist he discovered specific agglutination
Agglutination (biology)
Agglutination is the clumping of particles. The word agglutination comes from the Latin agglutinare, meaning "to glue."This occurs in biology in three main examples:...
in 1896 with his colleague Herbert Edward Durham (Gruber-Widal-reaction). But his main interests were studying the hygiene
Hygiene
Hygiene refers to the set of practices perceived by a community to be associated with the preservation of health and healthy living. While in modern medical sciences there is a set of standards of hygiene recommended for different situations, what is considered hygienic or not can vary between...
and the sexual life.
Max von Gruber was the son of Ignaz Gruber (1803-1872), a general practitioner and the first specialist in otology
Otology
Otology is a branch of biomedicine which studies normal and pathological anatomy and physiology of the ear as well as its diseases, diagnosis and treatment....
in Austria, and publisher of a two-volume textbook on medical chemistry (1835). His brother was Franz von Gruber. He graduated from the Schottengymnasium in Vienna and studied medicine at the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
, receiving his medical doctorate in 1876. He then learned chemistry and physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
under Max von Pettenkofer (1818-1901) and Karl von Voit
Carl von Voit
Carl von Voit was a German physiologist and dietitian.Von Voit was born in Amberg. From 1848 to 1854 he studied medicine in Munich and Würzburg; habilitation in 1857 at the University of Munich, professor of physiology since 1860, as well as curator of the physiological collection.Carl von Voit is...
(1831-1908) in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
and Karl Ludwig (1816-1895) 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...
. Also working under Pettenkofer was Hans Ernst August Buchner
Hans Ernst August Buchner
Hans Ernst August Buchner was a German bacteriologist who was born and raised in Munich. He studied medicine in Munich and Leipzig, earning his MD from the University of Leipzig in 1874. and afterwards served as a physician in the Bavarian Army...
(1850-1902), who encouraged Gruber to concentrate on bacteriology.
Unlike some of the great names of the time, among them Carl Wilhelm Nägeli, Theodor Billroth
Theodor Billroth
Christian Albert Theodor Billroth was a German-born Austrian surgeon and amateur musician....
(1829-1894), Ferdinand Cohn
Ferdinand Cohn
Ferdinand Julius Cohn was a German biologist.Cohn was born in Breslau in the Prussian Province of Silesia. At the age of 10 he suffered hearing impairment. He received a degree in botany in 1847 at the age of nineteen at the University of Berlin. He was a teacher and researcher at University of...
(1828-1898), and Robert Koch
Robert Koch
Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a German physician. He became famous for isolating Bacillus anthracis , the Tuberculosis bacillus and the Vibrio cholerae and for his development of Koch's postulates....
(1843-1910), Gruber recognized that bacteria
Bacteria
Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
possess a variability within limits partially determined by the culture medium. This theory was important for the differentiation of the categories of bacteria and gained significance for Gruber in his examinations of cholera vibrios
Vibrio cholerae
Vibrio cholerae is a Gram-negative, comma-shaped bacterium. Some strains of V. cholerae cause the disease cholera. V. cholerae is facultatively anaerobic and has a flagella at one cell pole. V...
, enabling him to distinguish them from other vibrio
Vibrio
Vibrio is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria possessing a curved rod shape, several species of which can cause foodborne infection, usually associated with eating undercooked seafood. Typically found in saltwater, Vibrio are facultative anaerobes that test positive for oxidase and do not form...
s.
In 1882 Gruber was habilitated as a lecturer in 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 two years later he became associate professor and head of the newly established Institute for Hygiene at the University of Graz
University of Graz
The University of Graz , a university located in Graz, Austria, is the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria....
. On March 23, 1887, he became ausserordentlicher professor in Vienna, Succeeding Josef Nowak, and on December 10, 1891, he was appointed to the chair of hygiene established in 1875 at the University of Vienna. Karl Landsteiner
Karl Landsteiner
Karl Landsteiner , was an Austrian-born American biologist and physician of Jewish origin. He is noted for having first distinguished the main blood groups in 1900, having developed the modern system of classification of blood groups from his identification of the presence of agglutinins in the...
became his assistant in 1896. Another of his pupils, Alois Lode, in 1897 became the first professor in the new chair of hygiene at the University of Innsbruck. The working conditions in the Institute of Hygiene were so poor, that Gruber attempted to resign his chair and find employment as head of a laboratory in München or at the Jenner Institute in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, under Joseph Lister
Joseph Lister
Joseph Lister may refer to:*Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister , English surgeon, discovered that cleaning and disinfecting surgical wounds, and bandages, with carbolic acid prevents lethal infections...
. It was while in 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...
, however, that Gruber, with his English student Herbert Edward Durham (1866-1945), discovered the agglutination which gained him international fame.
Gruber eventually left Vienna in 1902, and in October that year he succeeded Hans Buchner as director of the Institute for Hygiene in München. He held the post until his voluntary retirement in 1923, on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. In Vienna he was succeeded by Arthur Schattenfroh (1869-1923), who held the chair from 1905 to 1923.
During his last years, Gruber concentrated completely on his duties as president of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.
With Max Rubner
Max Rubner
Max Rubner [ru:bner] was a German physiologist and hygienist.He studied at the University of Munich under Adolf von Baeyer and Carl von Voit . Afterwards he taught as a professor at the University of Marburg and the Robert Koch Institute of Hygiene at the University of Berlin...
and P. Martin Ficker (1868-) he published the Handbuch der Hygiene. 6 volumes; Leipzig, S. Hirtzel, 1911-1913.
External links
- hygiene of the sexual life (German, fulltext)
- Detailed Biography