Carl Wernicke

Biography

• Born on May 15, 1848 in Tarnowitz, Prussia (Tarnowskie Gory, Poland)
• 1876 – First assistant under Karl Westphal (1833–1890) at the Berlin Charité practising neuropsychiatry
• 1897 – Founded the journal Monatsschrift für Psychiatrie und Neurologie with Theodor Ziehen (1862-1950)
• Died on June 15, 1905 Dörrberg im Geratal, Thüringer Wald

Medical Eponyms

Wernicke’s aphasia (1874)

Wernicke’s aphasia is the classical “receptive aphasia”, in distinction to the “expressive aphasia” of Broca, although this terminology is problematic since there are concurrent “expressive” problems in Wernicke’s aphasia (and “receptive” problems in Broca’s aphasia).

• Wernicke C. Der aphasische Symptomencomplex: eine psychologische Studie auf anatomischer Basis [The aphasic symptom complex: a psychological study from an anatomical basis] 1874

Wernicke encephalopathy (Wernicke syndrome) (1881)

Constellation of nystagmus, ophthalmoplegia, cerebellar signs, neuropathy, and inability to record new information (“loss of recent memory”) as a result of thiamine deficiency (secondary to alcoholism and/or starvation). Anatomical changes include bilateral pinhead-sized haemorrhages in the mamillary bodies and in the periventricular and periaqueductal grey matter. [aka Wernicke disease; Wernicke syndrome; polioencephalitis hemorrhagica superior; Meynert amentia, Gayet disease, Gayet-Wernicke syndrome]

• Wernicke C. Die acute, hämorrhagische Polioencephalitis superior. In: Lehrbuch der Gehirnkrankheiten. 1881; II(47): 229-242

Wernicke hemianopic pupil (1883)

Loss of the pupillary reflex when a thin pencil of light is shone exclusively upon the “blind” side of the retina, indicating that the lesion is anterior to the point at which the pupillary fibres leave the optic tract for the superior colliculus, because when the lesion is more posterior, these fibres are spared, and so pupillary constriction still occurs even when the “blind” retina is stimulated.

• Wernicke C. Über hemiopische Pupillenreaktion. Fortschritte der Medizin, 1883; 1: 49–53

Wernicke’s cramp (1904)

A rare form of painful local muscle cramp precipitated by precipitated by anxiety or fear. Described by Wernicke in a lecture-demonstration in 1904

• Wernicke C. Ein Fall von Crampus-Neurose. Berliner klinische Wochenschrift, 1904; 41: 1121-1124.

Major Publications

• Wernicke C. Lehrbuch der Gehirnkrankheiten. 1881. [Band II, Band III]
• Duchenne GB, Wernicke C. Physiologie der Bewegungen nach electrischen Versuchen und klinischen Beobachtungen. 1885
• Wernicke K. Ueber hemiopische Pupillenreaction. Fortschr Med 1883;1:49–53
• Wernicke C. Gesammelte Aufsätze und kritische Referate zur Pathologie des Nervensystems. 1893
• Wernicke C. Outline of psychiatry in clinical lectures [24 lecture reprints]. The alienist and neurologist. 1899; XX (2-4). 1900; XXI(1-2). 1902; XXIII(2-4). 1903; XXIV(1-2).
• Wernicke C. Grundriss der Psychiatrie in klinischen Vorlesungen. 1900

References

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