Bruno Hofer (15 December 1861 – 7 July 1916) was a German fishery scientist, credited with being the founder of fish pathology.

Career

Hofer was born in

Rhein Rhein may refer to: Places * Rhine, a major river in Europe () * Rhein, a village in the municipality of Morsbach in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany * Rhein (Ostpreussen), a former name of the town Ryn in Poland * Rhein, Saskatchewan, a village w ...

in the

Province of Prussia The Province of Prussia (; ; ; ) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1824 to 1878. The province was established in 1824 from the provinces of East Prussia and West Prussia, and was dissolved in 1878 when the merger was reversed. König ...

in 1861. He studied

natural sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

at the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg () was the university of Königsberg in Duchy of Prussia, which was a fief of Poland. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant Reformation, Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke A ...

, receiving his doctorate in 1887 in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

as a student of

Richard Hertwig Richard Wilhelm Karl Theodor Ritter von Hertwig (23 September 1850 in Friedberg, Hesse – 3 October 1937 in Schlederloh, Bavaria), also Richard Hertwig or Richard von Hertwig, was a German zoologist and professor of 50 years, notable as the fi ...

. He then worked as an assistant at the Zoological Institute of Munich, and in 1889 obtained his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

.Hofer, Bruno
In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, , S. 379 f. He obtained a position at the Zoological Institute as a university lecturer and in 1891 acquired citizenship of the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria ( ; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1806 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German Empire in 1871, the kingd ...

. In 1894 he was appointed as a curator of the ''Zoologischen Sammlung des Staates'', and two years later became a lecturer for

ichthyology Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

at the veterinary university of Munich. In 1898 he was awarded an associate professorship for

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

and ichthyology and the chair of a full professor in 1904. During his career, he was also director of the "Royal Bavarian Research Station for Fisheries" and the "Royal Bavarian Research Station for Fish-Farming", vice-president of the "Bavarian Association of Fishermen" and editor of the magazine "''Allgemeine Fischereizeitung''". In 1909 he circumscribed the whitefish species ''

Coregonus bavaricus ''Coregonus bavaricus'', the Ammersee kilch, is a species of freshwater Coregonus, whitefish endemic to Ammersee, Lake Ammersee in the Germany, German state of Upper Bavaria. A small, silver-colored fish, it typically lives between deep, though ...

''. Hofer died in 1916 in Munich at the age of 54.

Publications

Hofer was particularly active in the field of fish

parasitology Parasitology is the study of parasites, their host (biology), hosts, and the relationship between them. As a List of biology disciplines, biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in questio ...

and pathology, and wrote the comprehensive German text on the subject, ''Fischkrankheitslehre'' (fish pathology), as well as his "''Handbuch der Fischkrankheiten''" (1904), "''Die Süßwasserfische von Mitteleuropas''" (1908), "''Über die Krebspest''" (1898), and more than 200 publications. In 1896 he was the author of a limnologic study of

Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...

, titled "''Die Verbreitung der Thierwelt im Bodensee''" (The spread of wildlife in Lake Constance). One of his most significant publications was the taxonomic description of the

myxosporea Myxosporea is a class of microscopic animals, all of whom are parasites. They belong to the Myxozoa clade within Cnidaria. They have a complex life cycle that comprises vegetative forms in two hosts—one an aquatic invertebrate (generally an ann ...

n parasite, '' Myxobolus cerebralis''.Bruno Hofer
On the Whirling Disease in Rainbow Trout
Hofer is also known for his early work in environmental protection, in particular for the preservation of water quality and drinking-water resources.

References

*Götz, Sabine (1998): "Bruno Hofer (1861–1916), a life for fisheries and environmental protection." Munich, Univ. of Munich, 268p.

External links

*

about Hofer {{DEFAULTSORT:Hofer, Bruno 1861 births 1916 deaths People from Ryn People from the Province of Prussia German parasitologists Fisheries scientists German curators German ichthyologists 19th-century German zoologists University of Königsberg alumni Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich