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Friedrich Wilhelm Felix von Bärensprung (March 30, 1822 – August 26, 1864) was a German dermatologist who was born in Berlin. In 1843 he obtained his doctorate at Halle an der Saale, and became a clinical assistant to Peter Krukenberg (1788-1865) at Halle. In 1850 he founded a private clinic in Halle, and in 1853 was appointed chief physician at the Syphilisklinik at the Berlin Charité. In 1857 he became an associate professor at the University of Berlin. His father, Friedrich von Bärensprung was mayor of Berlin in 1832-34.

Bärensprung is credited as being the first physician to demonstrate a link between herpes zoster and a lesion of the dorsal root ganglion. Subsequently he identified nine varieties of the disorder, which he classified according to the nerve involved.^[1] In 1854 provided the first description of tinea cruris,^[2] which is sometimes referred to as "Bärensprung's disease" in medical literature.

Bärensprung was in favor of housing projects for the impoverished, and also advocated the creation of day nurseries and children's homes in order to stop the spread of epidemics such as tuberculosis and scrofulosis. Among his written works was a small atlas on skin diseases that was edited and published posthumously by Ferdinand von Hebra (1816-1880).^[3]

[edit] Selected publications

• Beiträge zur Anatomie und Pathologie der menschlichen Haut (1848)
• Der Typhus in Obeschlesien im Jahre (1848)
• Epidemie von exanthemischen Typhus (1849)
• Untersuchungen über die Temperaturvehältnisse des Foetus und des erwachsenen Menschen im gesunden und kranken Zustande (1851-52)
• Ueber die Folge und den Verlauf epidemischer Krankheiten. Beobachtungen aus der medizinischen Geschichte und Statistik der Stadt Halle (1854)
• Die Gürtelkrtankheit (1861)
• Über hereditäre Syphilis (1864)

[edit] References

• Friedrich Wilhelm Felix von Bärensprung @ Who Named It