- Samuel Goldflam
Samuel Wulfowicz Goldflam (Warsaw, February 22, 1852 – August 26, 1932) was a Polish neurologist best known for his brilliant 1893 analysis of
myasthenia gravis (Erb-Goldflam syndrome ).Life
Goldflam received his education in his native city of
Warsaw . He graduated from high school in 1869, then studied medicine at Warsaw University. He qualified as a physician in 1875, then worked ininternal medicine at Holy Ghost Hospital under Professor Wilhelm Dusan Lambl (1824-95), known for the "giardia " parasite, "Lamblia intestinalis ". Lambl was not much of a mentor, so Goldflam worked largely by himself. His position at the internal-medicine clinic supplied him with ample research material. At that time, both internal-medicine and neurology patients were seen at Lambl’s clinic.In 1882 Goldflam studied with the famous neurologists
Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal (1833-90) andJean-Martin Charcot (1825-93), then returned to Warsaw to teach neurology in the manner of the grand masters. After a new period in Lambl’s clinic at Holy Ghost Hospital, he established his own clinic at Graniczna Street, no. 10, in Warsaw, for underprivileged patients, which he ran for nearly 40 years.During the First World War Goldflam worked as a volunteer in the Jewish Hospital with his great friend, the neurologist,
Edward Flatau (1869-1932). During the war he was one of the first to notice correspondence between malnourishment and diseases and he documented bone and joints disease under the name osteoarthropathia dysalimentaria (1918). His main interest, however, was in the significance of reflexes, neurological aspects of syphilis and eye reflexes.Goldflam was sharp clinician with ability to recognize small clues of illness which often escaped attention his colleagues. He works not only with patients but also was an anathomopathologist. His profound observations and publications were recognized in Poland and in the world.
Goldflam established the Jewish Society for Mental Disorders and established the „Sophia” clinic for mental patients in Otwock, and Berson and Bauman Children’s Hospital in Warsaw. Together with Flatau he established the Pathology Scientific Institute and, also with Flatau, the medical periodical "Warszawskie Czasopismo Naukowe", Goldflam was a full member of the "Warsaw Scientific Society" (Towarzystwo Naukowe Warszawskie). He helped many social causes together with
Janusz Korczak and Gerszon Lewin.A genius in neurology, Goldflam was also an artist and an expert on Beethoven, and he helped many aspiring artists in establishing their careers including
Artur Rubinstein . He died in 1932, the same year as two other Polish great neurologists,Edward Flatau (born 1869) and Joseph Jules François Félix Babinski (born 1857).ee also
*List of Poles
References
*
E.J. Herman , "History of Polish Neurology" (in Polish),Wrocław ,Polish Academy of Sciences , 1975.
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