Artur Biedl

Artur Biedl studied medicine at the University of Vienna where he qualified and received his doctorate in 1892. The following year he became an assistant at the institute for experimental pathology under Salomon Stricker (1834-1898), Philipp Knoll (1841-1900) and Richard Paltauff (1858-1924).

Biedl was habilitated in 1896. He became ausserordentlicher Professor (professor extraordinary) in 1899 and was appointed full professor in 1902. (According to one source he was professor extraordinary from 1898 and wirklicher Extraordinarius from 1902).

His work on internal secretions, published in 1910, was the first comprehensive study on glands and their secretions. Because of this milestone in scientific development, Biedl is now regarded as the founder of modern endocrinology. In 1913 Biedl was offered the chair of experimental pathology at the German University of Prague and took over the propaedeutic clinic. Biedl, however, was not clinically oriented and left the beds in the care of his colleague Julius Riehl, a cardiologist.

In 1928 Biedl founded the Journal Endokrinologie.

We thank Patrick Jucker-Kupper, Switzerland, and Therese Biedl, for information submitted.

• Ein Geschwisterpaar mit adiposo-genitaler Distrophie.
  Deutsche medicinische Wochenschrift, Berlin, 1922; 48: 1630.
• Innere Sekretion : ihre physiologischen Grundlagen und ihre Bedeutung für die Pathologie. With an introduction by Richard Paltauf (1858-1924).
  Wien, Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1910.
  English translation 1912. 4th edition, with an exhaustive bibliography, 1922.
  The first comprehensive study on glands and their secretions. Biedl showed that the adrenal cortex is essential for life.
• Physiologie und Pathologie der Hypophyse. Berlin, 1922.
• Die Wirkungen der strahlenden Energie auf die endokrinen Drüsen und die innere Sekretion. With Jonas Borak.
  In: Handbuch der gesamten Strahlenheilkunde, volume 1, Munich, 1928.
• Die Hypophyse.
  In: Handbuch der normalen und pathologischen Physiologie. Volume 16, 1; München 1930. Biographical:
• Isidor Fischer, publisher:
  Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte der letzten fünfzig Jahre.
  Berlin – Wien, Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1932.
• Peter Beighton & Gretha Beighton:
  The Man Behind the Syndrome. Springer Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1986.
• A. Huttmann:
  [History of the institute of general and experimental pathology and the propedeutic clinic of the German University in Prague] [Article in German]
  Wiener klinische Wochenschrift, March 16, 1990, 102 (6): 161-171.
  
  
• J. Kenez:
  [Artur Biedl and internal secretion] [Article in Hungarian]
  Orvosi Hetilap, Budapest, December 14, 1969, 110 (50): 2947-2951.