Paul Morawitz

Paul Oskar Morawitz was a German internist and physiologist, born on 3 April 1879 and died on 1 July 1936 at the age of 57 of a heart attack. After studying medicine at Leipzig, finishing in 1901, he served in the army and then joined Ludolf von Krehl at Tübingen as an assistant physician. He completed his habilitation dissertation on blood circulation in 1907, became chief clinician at the University clinic in Freiburg, and held chairs at Greifswald from 1913, Würzburg from 1921 and Leipzig from 1926. Morawitz was a pioneer in the study of blood coagulation: a landmark 1905 paper refined earlier work by Alexander Schmidt and described four coagulation factors, fibrinogen, prothrombin, thrombokinase and calcium. He also pioneered blood transfusion, studied angina and the use of quinidine as an antiarrhythmic, and set up a blood bank in Leipzig. The German Cardiological Society awards an annual prize in his name.