Friedrich Matthias Claudius (1 June 1822 – 10 January 1869) was a German
anatomist
Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
who was a native of
Lübeck
Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...
. He was related to the German poet
Matthias Claudius (1740–1815).
In 1844 he earned his doctorate from the
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...
, and in 1849 was appointed to the
Zoological Museum of Kiel University. In 1859 he became professor and director of the anatomical institute at the
University of Marburg
The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...
.
In an 1856 paper he described what were to become known as the "
cells of Claudius", which are cells located on the
basilar membrane
The basilar membrane is a stiff structural element within the cochlea of the inner ear which separates two liquid-filled tubes that run along the coil of the cochlea, the scala media and the scala tympani. The basilar membrane moves up and down ...
of the
inner ear
The inner ear (internal ear, auris interna) is the innermost part of the vertebrate ear. In vertebrates, the inner ear is mainly responsible for sound detection and balance. In mammals, it consists of the bony labyrinth, a hollow cavity in the ...
's
cochlea
The cochlea is the part of the inner ear involved in hearing. It is a spiral-shaped cavity in the bony labyrinth, in humans making 2.75 turns around its axis, the modiolus (cochlea), modiolus. A core component of the cochlea is the organ of Cort ...
. His name is also associated with "Claudius' fossa", now referred to as the
ovarian fossa, a depression in the
parietal peritoneum
The peritoneum is the serous membrane forming the lining of the abdominal cavity or coelom in amniotes and some invertebrates, such as annelids. It covers most of the intra-abdominal (or coelomic) organs, and is composed of a layer of mesothe ...
of the
pelvis
The pelvis (: pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of an Anatomy, anatomical Trunk (anatomy), trunk, between the human abdomen, abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also c ...
.
In 1867 he publishe
''Das Gehörorgan von Rhytina stelleri''("The hearing organ of ''
Rhytina stelleri'' ").
References
Sketches of Otohistory(biography)
Mondofacto Dictionary(definition of eponyms)
German anatomists
Physicians from Lübeck
Academic staff of the University of Marburg
1822 births
1869 deaths
{{Germany-med-bio-stub