Ernst Viktor von Leyden

Biography of Ernst Viktor von Leyden

Ernst Viktor von Leyden studied at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Institut in Berlin, a pupil of Johann Lukas Schönlein (1793-1864) and Ludwig Traube (1818-1876). He received his doctorate in 1853 in Berlin and became a physician in 1854. He was at first military physician in the army, assigned to work with Schönlein and Traube. During this period he turned to internal medicine, for which he was habilitated at Berlin in 1863

In 1865 Leyden was called upon to leave his position as Stabsarzt to assume the position of professor of medicine and director of the internal clinic in Königsberg. Here, working with Otto Spiegelberg (1830-1881) and Friedrich Daniel von Recklinghausen (1833-1910), he instigated a new era of clinical education. From 1872 he held a similar position at the newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm University in Strassburg, and from 1876 succeeded Traube in Berlin. Upon the death of Friedrich Theodor Frerich (born 1819) in 1885 he became director of the 1st medicial clinic in Berlin. In 1894 he stayed for a sustained period of time at the Russian court treating Czar Alexander, and in 1895 was raised to the nobility. He retired in 1907.

von Leyden was foremost in the movement for adequate hospital facilities (sanatoria) for tuberculous patients. He had a great clinical reputation and specialised in neurological problems, and his lectures were to influence Ludwig Edinger (1855-1918). Carl Wilhelm Hermann Nothnagel (1841-1905) was his assistant when he was in Königsberg.

von Leyden published articles on a wide variety of medical topics, and several monographs. Among his topics were tabes and poliomyelitis. He was the publisher of Handbuch der Ernährungstherapie. 2 volumes. Leipzig, 1897-1899; 2nd edition, 1903-1904; and of the Deutsche Klinik; with C. Gerhardt and B. Fränkel co-publisher of the Zeitschrift für Tuberkulose und Heilstättenwesen and Zeitschrift für diätetische und physikalische Therapie (with Goldscheider in Leipzig, 1898). With Frerichs in 1880 he founded the Zeitschrift für klinische Medizin, in which he published most of his later works. In 1881 he founded the Gesellschaft für innere Medizin.