Albert Philip Ohlmacher

Background

Albert Philip Ohlmacher was born on August 19, 1865, in Sandusky, Ohio, the son of Christian John and Anna (Scherer) Ohlmacher.

Education

Albert Ohlmacher attended high school at Sycamore, Illinois, and took his medical training at Northwestern University, graduating M. D. in 1890.

Career

From 1891 to 1894 Albert Ohlmacher was professor of comparative anatomy and embryology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Chicago, serving also for two years, 1892-94, at the Chicago Polyclinic. In the latter year, 1894, he went to the medical department of Ohio Wesleyan University as professor of pathology and bacteriology until 1897. For the next four years he was director of the pathological laboratory of the Ohio Hospital for Epileptics at Gallipolis. He then went to the medical department of Northwestern University as professor of pathology, but after a year, 1901-02, returned to the Ohio Hospital for Epileptics as superintendent. In 1905 he became director of the biologic laboratory of Frederick Stearns & Company in Detroit. After serving in this capacity for two years he entered private practice in Detroit and continued in it until his death. In practice he specialized in bacterial and vaccine therapy, and in the treatment of epilepsy.

Ohlmacher was the author of various articles in the American Text-book of Pathology (1902) and the Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences (1904). He wrote numerous papers based on original investigations, on blood-platelets, thymus gland, lymphatic constitution, cancer parasite, microtechnique, diphtheria antitoxin, typhoid meningitis, vaccine therapy, epilepsy, and other subjects. Ohlmacher's chief contributions to science were his studies on the pathology of epilepsy. In cases of idiopathic (primary) epilepsy, he noted the almost constant association of the thymic-lymphatic constitution, as shown by persistence of the thymus, general lymphadenoid hyperplasia, and arterial hypoplasia. From both morphological and physiological grounds he suggested that a relationship exists between genuine epilepsy and rachitis, eclampsia infantilis, thymic asthma and thymic sudden death, tetany, and possibly exophthalmic goiter. He called attention to the frequent occurrence of brain tumors and cerebral developmental disturbances in cases of secondary epilepsy, advancing the opinion that the presence of the neoplasm accounted for the epileptic seizures from which the patients suffered. While his general conclusions have not been confirmed in all respects by later work, Ohlmacher's studies are of importance in that they anticipated by some years the modern conceptions of the epileptic and hyperthyroid constitutions.

Achievements

• Albert Ohlmacher's chief contributions to science were his studies on the pathology of epilepsy. Ohlmacher wrote various articles to the American Text-book of Pathology (1902) and the Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences (1904), etc.

Membership

Albert Ohlmacher was a member of the American Medical Association, the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists, the National Association for the Study of Epilepsy, the Society of American Bacteriologists, and the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis.

Connections

On June 14, 1890, Albert Ohlmacher was married to Grace M. Peck of Sycamore, Illinois.

Father:

Christian John Ohlmacher

Mother:

Anna (Scherer) Ohlmacher

Sister:

Dora Ohlmacher

Sister:

Gertrude Anna Ohlmacher

Wife:

Grace M. (Peck) Ohlmacher

Daughter:

Elsa Ohlmacher

Daughter:

Grace Ohlmacher

Son:

Horace Ohlmacher

Son:

Carl E. Ohlmacher

Son:

Albert P. Ohlmacher

Brother:

Joseph Christian Ohlmacher

Brother:

Henry Ohlmacher