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Jacob Moritz Blumberg

Born  1873
Died  1955

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German surgeon and gynaecologist, born 1873, Posen; died 1955.

Biography of Jacob Moritz Blumberg

Jacob Moritz Blumberg received his education at the University of Breslau (Wroclaw), where he received his doctorate in 1896.

He undertook further training with Johannes Freiherr von Mikulicz-Radecki (1850-1905) at the surgical clinic in Breslau, under Albert Ludwig Sigesmund Neisser (1855-1916) at the dermatological clinic, and under Albert Fränkel (1848-1916) at the women's clinic. He also trained with Paul Zweifel (1848-1927) at the women's clinic in Leipzig. He subsequently first worked in Berlin, where he specialised in gynaecology and surgery, as well as radiology and radium therapy, but later moved to London.

Blumberg investigated methods of sterilisation of the surgeon's hands and invented a type of rubber glove which was widely used. Fighting with the German army in World War I, he brought a typhus epidemic in a prisoner of war camp under control by delousing 10.000 Russian POWs in a few days.

After the war he returned to surgical practice and founded an X-ray and radium institute and organised many prenatal clinics in Berlin. With the rise of the Nazis he left Germany and resumed his medical work in England with considerable success.

Bibliography

  • Beiträge zur Händedesinfektion.
    With Georg Krönig (1856-1911). Leipzig, 1900.

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