Theodor Langhans

Theodor Langhans was a German pathologist, born in Usingen in the Duchy of Nassau in 1839 and dying in Bern in 1915. He studied medicine at Heidelberg, at Göttingen under Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle, in Berlin under Rudolf Virchow, and in Würzburg, where he assisted Friedrich Daniel von Recklinghausen. He lectured at Marburg from 1867, became a full professor of pathology at Giessen in 1872, and from 1872 until 1912 was professor of pathological anatomy at the University of Bern, where the surgeon Fritz de Quervain was among his assistants. He also worked with Serafima Schachova on kidney anatomy using a canine model of induced nephritis. He is remembered for discovering the multi-nucleated giant cells found in granulomatous conditions, now called Langhans giant cells.