- A dictionary of medical eponyms

Robert Friedrich Froriep

Born  1804
Died  1861

Related eponyms

    German anatomist, born February 2, 1804, Jena; died June 15, 1861, Weimar.

    Biography of Robert Friedrich Froriep

    Robert Friedrich Froriep was the son of the physician Ludwig Friedrich von Froriep (1779-1847). He received his doctorate in Bonn in 1828, and then spent the following winter in Paris. On December 21, 1830, he married Wilhelmine Ammermüller in Tübingen. They got nine children, of whom five lived to adult age.

    He moved on to Jena, where his foreign papers were accepted. He became a Privatdocent in Jena in 1831. Later the same year he became a Privatdocent in Berlin, where he was appointed professor extraordinary of surgical anatomy. From 1833 to 1846 Froriep was prosector and conservator of the pathological museum at the Charité hospital. In this position he was Rudolf Virchow's (1821-1902) mentor. Virchow succeeded Froriep as Prosector at the Charité in 1847. They coresponeded frquently until Froriep's death.

    While prosector, Froriep augmented his income by working at a private clinic and teaching anatomic drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1836 he became Medicinalrat and member of the Medicinal Collegium of the province of Brandenburg.

    To Froriep the academy of art must have been something of a favourite place, as he himself had a great talent both as a graphic artist and painter. He made the original drawings for his own works, and also imported expensive foreign copperplates for reproduction in Germany.

    At the Charité, Froriep had at rocky relationship with Johannes Müller. When his father became, Froriep took the opportunity to leave his positions at the University of Berlin and the academy. He moved to Weimar in the spring of 1846 to succeed his father as director of the Weimarischer Landes-Industrie-Comptoir, where he was publisher of illustrated scientific and medical works. In 1851 he began practicing medicine once more, and in 1855 sold the Landes-Industrie-Comptoir to Ludwig Denicke from Lüneburg.

    Although Froriep made no major discoveries in his two medical disciplines, descriptive and pathological anatomy, his work was of great importance for making foreign discoveries known to German scientists, and he did a great effort to popularize expensive foreign illustrated works, that without his efforts would have remained unknown to German physicians.

    In 1829 Froriep published Thomas Bateman’s (1778-1821) Abbildungen der Hautkrankheiten, Weimar, 1829. He also published translations of works by Sir Astley Paston Cooper (1768-1841), Guillaume Dupuytren (1777-1835), Joseph Louis Sanson (1790-1841), and Louis-Jacques Bégin (1793-1859).

    From 1830 Froriep was co-editor and main contributor to Notizen aus dem Gebiete der Natur- und Heilkunde that had been established by his father. Following its 100th volume he changed its name to Tagesberichte über die Fortschritte der Natur- und Heilkunde (1850-1852). However, in the period from 1856 to 1861 it reappeared under its original title. From 1857 he published a popular journal titled Der ärztliche Hausfreund.

    His son, August Froriep, 1849-1917, became a physician like his father and grandfather. He is remembered for Froriep's ganglion.

    Bibliography

      Work referred to: Thomas Bateman:
    • Delineations of Cutaneous Disease Exhibiting the Characteristic Appearances of the Principal Genera and Species Comprised in the Classification of the Late Dr. Willan; and completing the Series of Engravings Begun by that Author.
      London, Longman, 1817.
      German translation published by Robert Froriep:
    • Abbildungen der Hautkrankheiten, darstellend die charakteristischen Erscheinungen ihrer Hauptgattungen und Arten nach Willans Classification.
      Erste Lieferung. Verlag des Großherzoglichen Sächsischen priv. Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs, Weimar, 1829. Expanded edition in 1837. Works by Robert Froriep:
    • De lingua anatomica quaedam et semiotica. Dissertatio inauguralis quam consensu inclyti medicorum ordinis pro gradu doctoris in medicina et chirurgia publice defendet auctor Robert Froriep.
      Cover title: Commentatio de lingua anatomica quaedam et semiotica
      Dissertation for "Doctor medicinae et chirurgiae", University of Bonn, 1828. 89 pages.
      Abridged French translation:
    • Recherches anatomiques et sémiotiques sur la langue. États divers de cet organe dans les affections morbides. Avec le texte explicatif, traduit de l'allemand par le Docteur Meisser.
      Brussels, Etablissement encyclographique, 1835.
    • Klinische Kupfertafeln : eine auserlesene Sammlung von Abbildungen in Bezug auf innere Krankheiten, vorzüuglich auf deren Diagnostik und pathologische Anatomie, für practische Aerzte. Erste–zwölfte Lieferung. Im Verlage des Großherzoglichen Sächsischen priv. Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs, Weimar, 1828-1837.
    • Dissertatio medica de corneitide scrofulosa. Publice defendet auctor Robertus Froriep. Thesis for nostrification. Jena, 1830.
    • Chirurgische Anatomie der Ligaturstellen.. Also published under the title Anatomia chirurgica locorum c. h. ligandis arteriis peridoneorum. Weimar, 1830.
    • De funiculi umbilicalis defectu. Habilitation thesis for the Berlin faculty, 1832.
    • Die Symptome der asiatischen Cholera, im Nov. und Dec. 1831 zu Berlin abgebildet und beschrieben. Weimar, 1832.
      In 1827 a cholera epidemic broke out in the Ganges delta and developed into a pandedmic that reached the residential city and the capital of Prussia. Robert Froriep atudied the transmission, the course and the death from this insidious disease. Froriep produced numerous drawings of the physiognomy of the sick as well as anatomical details. The most prominent victims of the cholere in Prussia was the philosopher Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel (born 1770), who died on November 14, 1831.
    • Chirurgische Kupfertafeln. Eine kleine Sammlung der nöthigsten Abbildungen von anatomischen Präparaten und chirurgischen Instrumenten und Bandagen, zum Gebrauche für praktische Chirurgen.
      Landes-Industrie-Comptoir, 1820-1847.
      In 1833, Robert Froriep took the publication of this work, begun by his father, Ludwig Friedrich von Froriep (1779-1847).
    • De ossos metatarsi primi exostosi. Berlin, 1834.
      Gratulations-Commentatiuncula to the jubilee of Johann Wilhelm von Wiebel (1767-1847).
    • Pathologisch-anatomische Abbildungen aus der Sammlung der Königlichen Charité-Heilanstalt zu Berlin.
      Weimar : Landes-Industrie-Comptoir, 1834.
      The illustrations for this work also appeared in Klinische Kupfertafeln (1820-1837) that had been commenced by his father, and the Chirurgische Kupfertafeln (1820-1848), the publication of which he took over in 1833.
    • Bemerkungen über den Einfluss der Schulen auf die Gesundheit.
      Berlin : Enslin, 1836.
    • Beobachtungen über die Heilwirkung der Elektricität : bei Anwendung des magnetoelectrischen Apparates.
      Weimar : Im Verlage des Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs, 1843.
      Heft 1: Die rheumatische Schwiele. Ein Beitrag zur Pathologie und Therapie des Rheumatismus.
      English translation:
    • On the therapeutic application of electro-magnetism in the treatment of rheumatic and paralytic affections. London, H. Renshaw, 1850.
      Translated from the German by Richard Moore Lawrence.
    • Die rheumatische Schwiele. Ein Beitrag zur Pathologie und Therapie des Rheumatismus.
      Heft 1 of Beobachtungen über die Heilwirkung der Electricität. Weimar, 1843.
    • Die Charakteristik des Kopfes nach dem Entwicklungsgesetze desselben.
      Berlin : Sachse, 1845. 48 pages.
    • Icon synoptica arteriarum corp. hum. in uno sceleto conjunctim descriptorum.
      Jena, 1850.
    • Icon synoptica nervorum etc. Jena, 1850.
    • Roberti Froriepi Atlas anatomicus partium corporis humani per strata dispositarum imagines : in tabulis XXX ab Augusto Andorffo delineatas ferroque incisas exhibens.
      Weimar : Landes-Industrie-Comptoir, 1851, 1856. 6th edition, Leipzig 1877.
    • Memoranda der speciellen Anatomie des Menschen. 2nd edition, Weimar, 1854.
    • Die Rettung der Cretinen. Bonn, 1857.
    • Die Pferderacen. Weimar, 1852; 4th edition, 1857.

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