Hermann Sahli

Hermann Sahli (1856 to 1933) was a Swiss internist, a native of Bern, who spent his career in that city. He took his doctorate at the University of Bern in 1878, assisted Ludwig Lichtheim at the Bern policlinic, and trained for a period in Leipzig under Julius Cohnheim and Carl Weigert. He became professor of internal medicine at Bern in 1888 and also directed the medical clinic of the Inselspital. Sahli worked across nearly every branch of internal medicine, with contributions to neurology, physiology and hematology, and he was especially known for his work on hemodynamics. He improved the sphygmomanometer and introduced the hemoglobinometer that carries his name, a colorimetric instrument for measuring the hemoglobin content of blood. His name is also attached to a pipette method for red blood cell counts and, together with Georges Hayem, to a hemocytometer used to count platelets. He wrote more than 175 scientific articles and, in 1894, an influential textbook of clinical examination methods, Lehrbuch der klinischen Untersuchungsmethoden.