Julius Dreschfeld

Julius Dreschfeld (1845 to 1907) was a leading British physician and pathologist, born in Bavaria and educated in Manchester and at the University of Würzburg, where he took his MD in 1867. From 1869 he practised in Manchester and rose to honorary physician at the Manchester Royal Infirmary. At Owens College he became lecturer in pathology in 1876 and in 1881 professor of general pathology, morbid anatomy and morbid histology, the first chair of its type in England, bringing laboratory methods from across Europe and establishing pathology as a significant medical discipline there. He took the chair of medicine in 1891 and so held both professorships. He had a particular interest in diseases of the nervous system, nearly anticipated Pasteur in rabies research during the Manchester epidemic of 1882 to 1883, and gave the 1886 Bradshaw Lecture on diabetic coma, recognised as the first account of diabetic ketoacidosis.