science · 23 January 1921 · 103 years ago
death
Died 23 Jan 1921 at age 84 (born 6 Oct 1836).
Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz was a German anatomist who coined the terms neuron (1891) and chromosome (1888), and a number of embryological terms (including those to describe the structure of developing teeth). In 1856, he began university studies in natural science, but his interest turned to medicine and anatomy. After completing his doctoral dissertation (published 1862), he began teaching physiology, and thereafter published several papers on pathology. One of these, on the histological changes in muscles following typhoid fever, led at age 29 to appointment as a professor of pathology. He studied the diagnosis of early cancer, and in 1887 was one of the German doctors that diagnosed a tumor of his vocal cords for Emperor Frederick III. For over 30 years of his later career, until age 80, he was director of the anatomy department at the University of Berlin.
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