Leukemia was first recognized as a distinct disease in 1827 by the French anatomist Alfred Velpeau, who described a patient with grossly abnormal, whitish blood. In 1845 Rudolf Virchow gave the condition a fuller pathological description and coined the name Leukamie, from the Greek for white blood, and around 1855 Franz Ernst Christian Neumann traced the disease to the bone marrow after finding it discolored a dirty greenish yellow rather than its normal red in affected patients. By 1900 physicians recognized that leukemia was not a single disease but a family of related blood disorders.
Facts
Partially Attested
Type/ClassificationThe discovery is the recognition and description of a disease; disease-mechanism is the closest allowed value, though the source describes the disease rather than a mechanism. Discovery YearSourced to the subject's own account DiscovererSourced to the subject's own account Connections
Associated With
Discovered By
Virchow gave the condition its full pathological description and coined the name leukemia in 1845; French anatomist Alfred Velpeau first recognized it as a distinct disease in 1827.
Sources
1. Rudolf Virchow (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHistory section, 1845 descriptionQuote, History section, 1845 description
A more complete description was given by pathologist Rudolf Virchow in 1845.
2. Leukemia (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead sectionQuote, Lead section
Leukemia is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Rudolf Virchow first describe leukemia?
In 1845, in his first scientific paper.
Rudolf Virchow gave the earliest known pathological description of leukemia in 1845, in his first published scientific paper.
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