Anton, baron von Eiselsberg

Austrian surgeon
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Quick Facts
Born:
July 31, 1860, Schloss Steinhaus, Austrian Empire
Died:
Oct. 25, 1939, near St. Valentin, Austria
Subjects Of Study:
thyroid gland

Anton, baron von Eiselsberg (born July 31, 1860, Schloss Steinhaus, Austrian Empire—died Oct. 25, 1939, near St. Valentin, Austria) was an Austrian surgeon, teacher, and researcher who carried out important studies in the physiology of the thyroid gland and surgery of the central nervous system.

Eiselsberg studied medicine at Vienna, Würzburg, Zürich, and Paris. In 1884 he received his M.D. from Vienna, where he was a pupil of and assistant to the brilliant Viennese surgeon Theodor Billroth. He was professor of surgery at Utrecht (1893), Königsberg (1896), and Vienna (1901). In 1890 he made note of the frequent occurrence of tetany cramps after goiter operations and two years later produced tetany experimentally by removal of the parathyroid glands. He later studied thyroid cancer and did important work in pituitary surgery.

It was while he was a professor at Vienna that Eiselsberg achieved a reputation as the leader of neurosurgery in Austria. He was one of the founders of modern gastrointestinal surgery and the first surgeon in Europe to remove a spinal column tumor. He pioneered in brain surgery and also performed studies on streptococcic infections.

Michael Faraday (L) English physicist and chemist (electromagnetism) and John Frederic Daniell (R) British chemist and meteorologist who invented the Daniell cell.
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Eiselsberg received honorary degrees from universities at Athens, Budapest, Debrecen, Edinburgh, Geneva, Leiden, Paris, and Vienna.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.