upPortrait of Lewandowsky Max Lewandowsky (28 June 1876 – 4 April 1916) was a German

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...

, who was a native of

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

, born into a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family.

Personal life

Lewandowsky studied medicine at the Universities of

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approx ...

and

Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hall ...

, earning his medical doctorate at Halle in 1898. In 1902 he obtained his post-graduate qualification for

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemic ...

, and in 1904, received training in clinical neurology and

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial p ...

under

Karl Bonhoeffer Karl Bonhoeffer (; March 31, 1868 – December 4, 1948) was a German neurologist, psychiatrist and physician. Life Bonhoeffer was born in Neresheim in the Kingdom of Württemberg to Friedrich von Bonhoeffer (1828–1907), who worked as judg ...

and

Franz Nissl Franz Alexander Nissl (9 September 1860, in Frankenthal – 11 August 1919, in Munich) was a German psychiatrist and medical researcher. He was a noted neuropathologist. Early life Nissl was born in Frankenthal to Theodor Nissl and Maria Haa ...

at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, B ...

. Afterwards he travelled to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

, where he studied under neurologist

Pierre Marie Pierre Marie (9 September 1853 – 13 April 1940) was a French neurologist and political journalist close to the SFIO. Medical Career After finishing medical school, he served as an interne (1878), working as an assistant to neurologist Jean- ...

. Beginning in 1905 he worked in the Berlin-Friedrichshain hospital.Deutschsprachige Neurologen und Psychiater: Ein biographisch
by Alma Kreuter During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

he became infected with

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...

and died.

Academic contributions

Lewandowsky coined the term '' blood–brain barrier'' in 1900, referring to the hypothesized semipermeable membrane which separated the human

central nervous system The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain and spinal cord. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity of all p ...

from the rest of the body's vasculature, and which prevented the entry of certain compounds from entering the

brain The brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head ( cephalization), usually near organs for special ...

when injected into the bloodstream. Two years earlier, researchers Arthur Biedl and

R. Kraus R. or r. may refer to: * ''Reign'', the period of time during which an Emperor, king, queen, etc., is ruler. * '' Rex'', abbreviated as R., the Latin word meaning King * ''Regina'', abbreviated as R., the Latin word meaning Queen * or , abbreviat ...

had formed a similar hypothesis when low-concentration "bile salts" failed to affect behavior (and thus, in theory, had failed to enter the brain) when injected into the bloodstream of animals. In 1908, Lewandowsky and Stadelmann published the first report of an individual with calculation impairment due to brain damage (

acalculia Acalculia is an acquired impairment in which people have difficulty performing simple mathematical tasks, such as adding, subtracting, multiplying and even simply stating which of two numbers is larger. Acalculia is distinguished from dyscalcul ...

; the term would later be introduced by

Salomon Eberhard Henschen Salomon Eberhard Henschen (28 February 1847 – 16 December 1930) was a Swedish doctor, professor and neurologist. Biography Henschen was born in Uppsala, Sweden. He was the son of Lars Wilhelm Henschen (1805–1885) and wife Augusta Munck af Ro ...

in 1925). The individual had trouble performing calculations on paper and mentally. Further, he had difficulty recognizing arithmetic symbols. The report was key in that it established calculation disorders as separate from language disorders, as the two were formerly associated. Beginning in 1910 he, together with

Alois Alzheimer Alois Alzheimer ( , , ; 14 June 1864 – 19 December 1915) was a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist and a colleague of Emil Kraepelin. Alzheimer is credited with identifying the first published case of "presenile dementia", which Kraepe ...

, edited the journal '' Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie''. He was also editor of a handbook of neurology, (1910–1914). Lewandowsky Vogts Brodmann

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewandowsky, Max German neurologists 1876 births 1916 deaths 19th-century German Jews Physicians from Berlin People from the Province of Brandenburg University of Marburg alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Halle alumni Deaths from typhus