Hermann Weber
Sir Hermann David Weber (1823-1918) was a German physician who practised in England
Weber moved to London he took the LRCP, as a student of Guy’s Hospital, became physician to the German Hospital, Dalston, and to consumption hospitals at Ventnor and North London. He had a large and distinguished practice with patients including five Prime Ministers—Derby, Russell, Salisbury, Rosebery and Campbell-Bannerman.
He was an Alpine climber and a numismatist
Best known for his description of Weber’s paralysis (Weber syndrome) in 1863
Biography
- Born December 30, 1823, Holzkirchen, Unterfranke
- 1848 – graduated MD in Bonn
- 1854 – commenced work at the German Hospital in Dalston, England
- 1855 – Guy’s Hospital in London; [MRCP, 1855, FRCP 1859]
- 1863 – father to Frederick Parkes Weber (1863-1962) who became an even more famous physician
- 1890 – retired as a hospital physician in 1890, but remained consulting physician to the German Hospital, and consulting physician and German embassy physician in London
- Died November 11, 1918, London
Medical Eponyms
Weber’s syndrome (Weber’s paralysis) 1863
Partial or complete oculomotor paralysis and contralateral hemiplegia due to lesions of the nucleus of the third cranial nerve and its ventral fibres crossing the midbrain and the pyramidal tract. Most commonly associated with haemorrhage or thrombosis, and rarely with a pituitary neoplasm which extends dorsally
1856 – Adolphe Gubler (1821-1897)
1863 – Weber: Infarction or a tumour of the brainstem produces paralysis of the third cranial nerve on the same side and hemiparesis on the opposite side.
1891 – As was the way with eponymous terms, the eponym rarely attributed their own name to the condition, instead couching their findings as a neologism or complex description. Later, eminent physicians with similar case used the name of the eponym to create the eponymous term. In this case it was the very eminent Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893)
Original
English
Je tiens, avant de passer à l’examen et à la discussion de ce cas, à vous exposer quelques considérations concernant ce que, pour plus de brièveté, j’appelerai, si vous voulez bien, le syndrome de Weber. Weber est un médecin allemand résidant en Angleterre et auquel nous sommes redevables d’une Tort intéressante étude sur la pathologie du pédoncule cérébral. Si je vous propose cette dénomination c’est parce que l’observation qui sert de fondement au travail de cet auteur est absolument typique. C’est en effet pour la première fois qu’on publie un cas, à localisation unique et très nette, montrant qu’une lésion de la partie inférieure et interne du pédoncule cérébral produit un syndrome caractérisé par une paralysie alterne de l’oculo-moteur commun d’un côté et des extrémités du côté opposé.
…Gubler avait déjà, il est vrai, vu et noté cette sorte de paralysie alterne, mais malheureusement, son cas était complexe. Il y avait en effet des lésions un peu dans toutes les parties de l’encéphale : non seulement le pédoncule mais encore la couche optique, le lobe temporal et le lobe occipital étaient touchés, de telle manière que, si en réalité l’observation de Gubler est la première en date, elle est je le répète, beaucoup trop complexe pour servir de type aux paralysies pédonculo-protubérantielles.
Before examining and discussing this case, I would like to propose the name Weber’s syndrome. Weber is a German physician residing in England to whom we are indebted for a very interesting study on the pathology of the cerebral peduncle. I propose this term because the observation that serves as the basis for this author’s work is absolutely typical. This is the first time that a case has been published, with a single and very clear location, showing that a lesion of the lower and internal part of the cerebral peduncle produces a syndrome characterised by paralysis of the common oculomotor nerve on one side and of the extremities on the opposite side.
…Gubler had already noted this type of alternating paralysis, but unfortunately, his case was complex. There were lesions in almost all parts of the brain: not only the peduncle but also the optic layer, the temporal lobe and the occipital lobe. Although Gubler’s observation was the first , it is much too complex to serve as a typical example.
1900 – Joseph Grasset (1849-1918), Professeur de Clinique médicale à l’Université de Montpellier, first used the term in a presentation to la Société de Neurologie de Paris, on July, 5 1900.
Major Publications
- Weber HD. A contribution to the pathology of the crura cerebri. Medico-Chirurgical Transactions 1863; 46: 121-139. [Weber syndrome]
References
Biography
Eponymous terms
- Gubler A-M. De l’hémiplégie alterne envisagée comme signe de lésion de la protubérance annulaire et comme preuve de la décussation des nerfs faciaux. Gazette hebdomadaire de médecine et de chirurgie. 1856; 3: 749-754, 789-792, 811-816. [Millard-Gubler syndrome]
- Charcot. Sur un cas d’hystérie simulatrice du syndrome de Weber. 1891; 21(63): 321-345
- Grasset J. Un type spécial de paralysie alterne motrice (type foville): paralysie des membres d’un coté, du facial total et de l’hemi-oculomoteur rotateur des yeux de l’autre. Revue neurologique, Paris, 1900; 8: 586-592.
Eponym
the person behind the name
