Hermann Senator (6 December 1834 – 14 July 1911) was a German internist who was a native of

Gnesen Gniezno (; german: Gnesen; la, Gnesna) is a city in central-western Poland, about east of Poznań. Its population in 2021 was 66,769, making it the sixth-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. One of the Piast dynasty's chief cities, ...

in the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

Province of Posen The Province of Posen (german: Provinz Posen, pl, Prowincja Poznańska) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1848 to 1920. Posen was established in 1848 following the Greater Poland Uprising as a successor to the Grand Duchy of Posen, ...

(now Gniezno, Wielkopolska, Poland). Of

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 ...

descent, he studied medicine in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, where he received his medical doctorate in 1857. Among his instructors in Berlin were

Johannes Peter Müller Johannes Peter Müller (14 July 1801 – 28 April 1858) was a German physiologist, comparative anatomist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist, known not only for his discoveries but also for his ability to synthesize knowledge. The paramesonephri ...

(1801-1858), Johann Lukas Schönlein (1793-1864) and Ludwig Traube (1818-1876). In 1875, he became chief physician in the internal medicine department at the Augusta-Hospital, and in 1881 became head physician at the Berlin

Charité The Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité – Berlin University of Medicine) is one of Europe's largest university hospitals, affiliated with Humboldt University and Free University Berlin. With numerous Collaborative Research C ...

. After the death of

Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs (24 March 1819 – 14 March 1885) was a German pathologist born in Aurich. After earning his medical degree from the University of Göttingen in 1841, he returned to Aurich, where he spent several years working a ...

(1819-1885), he served as head of the "first medical clinic" at Berlin for a few months. In 1888 his department at the Charité was made into the "third medical clinic", expanded and made a part of a policlinic with Senator as its director. Beginning in 1872 he was co-editor of "''Centralblatt für die medizinischen Wissenschaften''". Hermann Senator made several contributions in internal medicine, in particular, involving research in the field of

nephrology Nephrology (from Greek'' nephros'' "kidney", combined with the suffix ''-logy'', "the study of") is a specialty of adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function ( ...

. He was the author of influential works associated with

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...

and

albuminuria Albuminuria is a pathological condition wherein the protein albumin is abnormally present in the urine. It is a type of proteinuria. Albumin is a major plasma protein (normally circulating in the blood); in healthy people, only trace amounts of ...

, and is credited with disproving the once-held belief that albuminuria was always a sign of primary kidney disease. His treatise on diseases of the kidneys, "''Die Erkrankungen der Nieren''", was included in Nothnagel's textbook of special pathology and therapy. Senator was also the author of a significant study on fevers, titled "''Untersuchungen über den fieberhaften Process und seine Behandlung''" (Investigations of the febrile process and its treatment). In 1868 he introduced his theory of "autointoxication", of which he speculated that "self-infection" originating in the

intestines The gastrointestinal tract (GI tract, digestive tract, alimentary canal) is the tract or passageway of the digestive system that leads from the mouth to the anus. The GI tract contains all the major organs of the digestive system, in humans and ...

could be a source of disease elsewhere in the human body. He also believed that autointoxication could be the root cause of certain mental disorders.

Selected publications

* ''Untersuchungen über den fieberhaften Process und seine Behandlung''. * ''Die Krankheiten des Bewegungsapparates. Diabetes mellitus und insipidus'' (Diseases of the

musculoskeletal system The human musculoskeletal system (also known as the human locomotor system, and previously the activity system) is an organ system that gives humans the ability to move using their muscular and skeletal systems. The musculoskeletal system provid ...

Diabetes mellitus Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...

and

diabetes insipidus Diabetes insipidus (DI), recently renamed to Arginine Vasopressin Deficiency (AVP-D) and Arginine Vasopressin Resistance (AVP-R), is a condition characterized by large amounts of dilute urine and increased thirst. The amount of urine produced ...

. Included in

Hugo Wilhelm von Ziemssen Hugo (Wilhelm) von Ziemssen (13 December 1829 – 21 January 1902) was a German physician, born in Greifswald. He studied medicine at the universities of Greifswald, Berlin, and Würzburg. In 1863 he was called to the University of Erlangen ...

's "Handbuch der speciellen Pathologie und Therapie". 2nd edition, 1879. * ''Die Albuminurie im gesunden und kranken Zustande''. Berlin, A. Hirschwald, 1882, (Albuminuria in healthy and diseased states); translated into several foreign languages. * ''Die Erkrankungen der Nieren''. (Diseases of the kidneys) In:

Carl Wilhelm Hermann Nothnagel Carl Wilhelm Hermann Nothnagel (28 September 1841 – 7 July 1905) was a German internist born in Alt-Lietzegöricke ( pl, Stare Łysogórki), near Bärwalde in der Neumark ( pl, Mieszkowice), Neumark, Brandenburg. Career The son of a pha ...

's "Handbuch der speciellen Pathologie und Therapie". * "Diseases of kidney and the spleen, hemorrhagic diseases". Philadelphia, 1905, (with Moritz Litten and Alfred Stengel).Google Books
Diseases of the kidneys and of the spleen, etc.

References

Sources

* *

External links

Who Named It ''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograp ...

The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Senator, Hermann German people of Jewish descent German nephrologists 19th-century German physicians 1834 births 1911 deaths People from Gniezno