Clemens von Pirquet

Clemens von Pirquet
Clemens von Pirquet (1906)
Born	May 12, 1874(1874-05-12) Hirschstetten near Vienna
Died	February 28, 1929(1929-02-28) (aged 54) Vienna Suicide
Nationality	Austrian
Fields	pediatrics bacteriology immunology
Known for	tuberculosis allergy

Clemens Peter Freiherr^[1] von Pirquet (May 12, 1874–February 28, 1929) was an Austrian scientist and pediatrician best known for his contributions to the fields of bacteriology and immunology.

Born in Vienna, he studied theology at the University of Innsbruck and philosophy at the University of Leuven before he enrolled at the University of Graz where he became a doctor of medicine in 1900. He started practicing at the Children's Clinic in Vienna.

In 1906 he noticed that patients who had previously received injections of horse serum or smallpox vaccine had quicker, more severe reactions to a second injection. He, along with Bela Schick, coined the word allergy (from the Greek allos meaning "other" and ergon meaning "reaction") to describe this hypersensitivity reaction.

Soon after, the observation with smallpox led Pirquet to realize that tuberculin, which Robert Koch isolated from the bacteria that cause tuberculosis in 1890, might lead to a similar type of reaction. Charles Mantoux expanded upon Pirquet's ideas and the Mantoux test, in which tuberculin is injected into the skin, became a diagnostic test for tuberculosis in 1907.

In 1909 he declined proposals to take a position at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and to become a professor at the Johns Hopkins University. In 1910 he returned to Europe taking positions in Breslau (now Wrocław) and then Vienna.

28 February 1929 Clemens von Pirquet and his wife committed suicide.

References

1. ^ Regarding personal names: Freiherr is a title, translated as Baron, not a first or middle name. The female forms are Freifrau and Freiin.

Further reading

• Who Named It - Pirquet
• U.S. National Library of Medicine – History of medicine
• Arthur M. Silverstein, Clemens Freiherr von Pirquet: Explaining immune complex disease in 1906 (Nature – Immunology 1, p.453–455, 2000)
• EAACI – Clemens von Pirquet FOUNDATION
• Huber, Benedikt (2006), "[100 years of allergy: Clemens von Pirquet--his concept of allergy and his basic understanding of the disease: 2: The Pirquet concept of allergy]", Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. 118 (23–24): 718–27, 2006 Dec, doi:10.1007/s00508-006-0712-0, PMID 17186166 
• Huber, Benedikt (2006), "[100 years of allergy: Clemens von Pirquet - his idea of allergy and its immanent concept of disease]", Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. 118 (19–20): 573–9, 2006 Oct, doi:10.1007/s00508-006-0701-3, PMID 17136331 
• Bergmann, K C (2006), "[Clemens Freiherr von Pirquet, developer of the concept of allergy]", MMW Fortschritte der Medizin 148 (29–30): 24–5, 27, 2006 Jul 20, PMID 16910402 
• Bukantz, Samuel C (2002), "Clemens von Pirquet and the concept of allergie", J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 109 (4): 724–6, 2002 Apr, PMID 11980437 
• Slavin, R G (1982), "The 10th annual Clemens von Pirquet lectureship. Clinical disorders of the nose and their relationship to allergy", Annals of allergy 49 (3): 123–6, 1982 Sep, PMID 7051906 
• Bendiner, E (1981), "Baron von Pirquet: the aristocrat who discovered and defined allergy", Hosp. Pract. (Off. Ed.) 16 (10): 137, 141, 144 passim, 1981 Oct, PMID 6800919 
• Wyklicky, H (1980), "[Thoughts on the history of allergy. In memoriam Clemens von Pirquet]", Wiener medizinische Wochenschrift (1946) 130 (3): 123–5, 1980 Feb 15, PMID 6989119 
• Kapus, G (1979), "[In memory of Clemens v. Pirquet]", Orvosi hetilap 120 (22): 1327–30, 1979 Jun 3, PMID 379734 
• Asperger, H (1979), "[50th anniversary of the death of Clemens von Pirquet]", Pädiatrie und Pädologie 14 (2): I–II, PMID 379746 
• "[Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift/24 July 1906: Allergy by Clemens v. Pirquet, Vienna]", MMW, Münchener medizinische Wochenschrift 120 (14): 474, 1978, 1978 Apr 7, PMID 347265 
• Székely, S (1974), "[Clemens von Pirquet]", Orvosi hetilap 115 (20): 1175–7, 1974 May 19, PMID 4597514 
• Rapaport, H G (1973), "Clemens von Pirquet and allergy", Annals of allergy 31 (10): 467–75, 1973 Oct, PMID 4588535 
• TREIMAN, V V (1965), "[CLEMENS PIRQUET, AN OUTSTANDING AUSTRIAN MAN OF MEDICINE.]", Sovetskaia meditsina 28: 151–3, 1965 Mar, PMID 14290647 
• WAGNER, R (1964), "CLEMENS VON PIRQUET, DISCOVERER OF THE CONCEPT OF ALLERGY", Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 40: 229–35, 1964 Mar, PMC 1750523, PMID 14130490, http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1750523 
• WAGNER, R (1963), "[Clemens von PIRQUET.]", Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. 75: 241–3, 1963 Apr 5, PMID 13998265 
• KUNDRATITZ, K (1954), "[Researches and theories of Clemens von Pirquet.]", Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. 66 (13): 217–20, 1954 Apr 2, PMID 13169763 

External links

• Pirquet an der Kinderklinik in Wien, 1928. Video on YouTube
• Clemens von Pirquet on 50 Euro Gold Coin

Persondata
Name	Pirquet, Clemens von
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1874-05-12
Place of birth
Date of death	1929-02-28
Place of death