Carl Julius Salomonsen af Marius Christensen

Carl Julius Salomonsen (6 December 1847 – 14 November 1924) was a Danish bacteriologist who is considered the father of bacteriology in Denmark. He developed techniques for isolating microbes and for extracting pure cultures apart from some staining techniques. Salomonesen was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

to physician and epidemiologist Martin and his wife Eva Henriques. He took an interest in medical matters from an early age and after studying at the Metropolitan School he obtained an MD in 1871 from the University of Copenhagen. His main interests where in pathology and parasitology but he worked with his father as a physician in his early years followed by work at the pathology department at Almindelig. Later he became interested in bacterial breakdown of blood and he obtained a doctorate for his dissertation on his research in 1877. He developed a technique of maintaining blood in capillary tubes within which bacterial colonies could be seen as spots. Breaking of the portions allowed him to extract what he claimed were pure extracts of a single bacterial species. Through his friends and family, he met

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and served as his personal secretary. He worked in Wroclaw under

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on tuberculosis. He also met

Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, Fermentation, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the la ...

in Paris,

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and

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in Germany, before returning to Copenhagen where he worked at the Municipal Hospital. He conducted experiments on ''

Streptococcus ''Streptococcus'' is a genus of gram-positive spherical bacteria that belongs to the family Streptococcaceae, within the order Lactobacillales (lactic acid bacteria), in the phylum Bacillota. Cell division in streptococci occurs along a sing ...

'' obtained from pus that he injected into rabbits to produce an infection. He conducted experiments on radium and the effects of radiation on blood. In 1883 he became a lecturer in medical bacteriology and in 1885 he published a textbook on bacteriology. He became a full professor in 1893. He directed the State Serum Institute which was founded in 1902 until 1909 when his colleague

Thorvald Madsen Thorvald John Marius Madsen (February 18, 1870 in Frederiksberg – April 14, 1957 in Gjorslev) was a Danish physician and bacteriologist. Madsen was the director of Statens Serum Institut from 1910 to 1940. He was the son of General V. H. O. Ma ...

took over. He founded the Danish Museum for medical history in 1907, lobbied for free medical education, and conducted numerous studies and collaborated widely. In 1910, while working as dean of the university, he wrote a history of epidemiology. Salomonsen was also interested in art, collected works, and wrote on the subject. He suffered from osteoarthritis in his late life and was affected by the death of his wife Ellen Henriques and daughter before him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salomonsen, Carl Julius 1847 births 19th-century Danish physicians 20th-century Danish physicians 1924 deaths Danish bacteriologists Scientists from Copenhagen