Otto Michael Ludwig Leichtenstern

Otto Michael Ludwig Leichtenstern

Otto Michael Ludwig Leichtenstern (October 14, 1845 – February 23, 1900) was a German internist born in Ingolstadt.

In 1869 he received his doctorate from the University of Munich, later working as an assistant of clinical medicine in Munich under Karl von Pfeufer (1806–1869) and Joseph von Lindwurm (1824–1874). After the death of Felix von Niemeyer (1820–1871), he became interim head of the medical clinic in Tübingen prior to the appointment of Carl von Liebermeister (1833–1901) as Niemeyer's permanent replacement. Leichtenstern remained at the Tübingen clinic for several years, and from 1879 to 1900 was head physician of internal medicine at the city hospital in Cologne.

Leichtenstern is remembered for publishing articles on almost every facet of medicine. He did extensive research in the field of helminthology, including studies of hookworm (ankylostoma duodenale), and was the first to demonstrate that humans can be infected by hookworm if the larvae are ingested orally. In 1898 he suspected that the compound 2-naphthylamine (2-NA) was involved in human bladder tumorigenesis. With Adolph Strümpell (1853–1925), the eponymous "Strümpell-Leichtenstern encephalitis" is named, which is also known as acute hemorrhagic encephalitis.

References

• Otto Michael Ludwig Leichtenstern at Who Named It
• Medscape.com Chemical Carcinogens—From Past to Present

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Name	Leichtenstern, Otto Michael Ludwig
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Date of birth	October 14, 1845
Place of birth
Date of death	February 23, 1900
Place of death