Kronecker went to Berlin where he began studying medicine around 1859-1860. He soon took a great interest in physiology, taught at that time by du Bois-Reymond. After further studies at Pisa, he returned to Berlin. There he took the doctorate in 1863 under du Bois-Reymond with a thesis on the problem of the fatigue of the muscles.
Gallery of Hugo Kronecker
Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
Kronecker studied at Heidelberg where he took part in investigations of the physiology of the muscles carried out by Hermann von Helmholtz and W. Wundt.
Career
Gallery of Hugo Kronecker
1898
Old Schools, Cambridge, England
Group Portrait outside Old Schools, Cambridge, 1898. From left to right: E.J. Marey, A. Dohrn, C. Golgi, E.H.P.A. Haeckel, A.A.W. Hubrecht, W.F. Kuehne, H.P. Bowditch, Hugo Kronecker and H. Kronecker.
Gallery of Hugo Kronecker
1909
Hugo Kronecker seated with apparatus to pulse of wrist, inscribed and dated on March 31, 1909.
Gallery of Hugo Kronecker
Group photograph of Hermann Helmholtz, his wife (seated) and academic friends Hugo Kronecker (left), Thomas C. Mendenhall (right), Henry Villard (center standing).
Gallery of Hugo Kronecker
Physiologists Hugo Kronecker and Henry Pickering Bowditch.
Achievements
Membership
Royal Society
Royal Society, London, England
Kronecker was a member of the Royal Society.
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Halle, Germany
Kronecker was a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Kronecker was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
Kronecker was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine
Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine, Bruxelles, Belgium
Kronecker was a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine.
Group Portrait outside Old Schools, Cambridge, 1898. From left to right: E.J. Marey, A. Dohrn, C. Golgi, E.H.P.A. Haeckel, A.A.W. Hubrecht, W.F. Kuehne, H.P. Bowditch, Hugo Kronecker and H. Kronecker.
Kronecker went to Berlin where he began studying medicine around 1859-1860. He soon took a great interest in physiology, taught at that time by du Bois-Reymond. After further studies at Pisa, he returned to Berlin. There he took the doctorate in 1863 under du Bois-Reymond with a thesis on the problem of the fatigue of the muscles.
Kronecker studied at Heidelberg where he took part in investigations of the physiology of the muscles carried out by Hermann von Helmholtz and W. Wundt.
Group photograph of Hermann Helmholtz, his wife (seated) and academic friends Hugo Kronecker (left), Thomas C. Mendenhall (right), Henry Villard (center standing).
Hugo Kronecker was a German physiologist known for his studies of fatigue and recovery of skeletal muscles. He also served as a department director of the Physiological Institute in Berlin, and chairman of Physiology at the University of Bern in Switzerland.
Background
Hugo Kronecker was born Karl Hugo Kronecker on January 27, 1839, in Liegnitz, Prussia (now Legnica, Poland), in a well-to-do family with scientific proclivities. He was the son of Isidor Kronecker and Johanna Prausnitzer. He was also the brother of the mathematician Leopold Kronecker, Emilie Kronecker and Mathilde Kronecker.
Education
After attending the grammar school at Liegnitz, Kronecker went to Berlin, where he began studying medicine around 1859-1860. He soon took a great interest in physiology, taught at that time by du Bois-Reymond. He continued his studies at Heidelberg, where at the institute he took part in investigations of the physiology of the muscles carried out by Hermann von Helmholtz and W. Wundt. After further studies at Pisa, he returned to Berlin. There he took the doctorate in 1863 under du Bois-Reymond with a thesis on the problem of the fatigue of the muscles.
In 1865 Kronecker was registered as a medical practitioner. He received his clinical training at Berlin as the personal assistant of his friend, Ludwig Traube, who was a follower of the so-called physiological school in medicine. He also worked under Wilhelm Kuhne. Kuhne was at that time in charge, under Virchow, of the chemico-physiological laboratory in the Charité Hospital in Berlin.
In 1868 Kronecker moved to Leipzig, where he worked in the Physiologische Anstalt directed by Carl Ludwig. After a temporary absence, during which he participated as a medical officer in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, Kronecker became Ludwig’s assistant; in the same year, he qualified as a lecturer with a significant dissertation in the field of the physiology of muscles. In 1875 he was appointed senior lecturer at the Physiologische Anstalt, where he stayed until 1877. In that year young physiologists from many countries were working at Ludwig’s laboratory; among them were S. von Basch, Baxt, Bowditch, Buchner, Flechsig, M. von Frey, W. Gaskell, Gaule, Merunowicz, A. Mosso, G. Schwalbe, and Scafer.
From 1878 to 1884 Kronecker was in charge of the “special physiological department” of the Institute of Physiology at Berlin, directed by du Bois-Reymond. Once again he helped the foreigners studying at the Berlin institute, among them the Russians N. E. Wedcnskij, T. Openchowski, D. von Ott, N. W. Jastrebov, and D. V. Kireev. In addition, S. von Basch from Vienna and Francis Gotch from England worked under him.
When he was appointed successor to Paul Grutzner as full professor for physiology at Bern in 1884, many foreigners worked at his institute, especially after the “Hallerianum,” a new building attached to the institute had been constructed. He took a great part in founding the International Physiological Congress. The first one took place at Basel in 1889. Kronecker held his chair at Bern until his sudden death at Bad Nauheim of a perforated aortic aneurysm.
Kronecker’s scientific investigations were mainly centered around questions concerning the muscles, the heart and circulation, the mechanism of deglutition, saline infusion, and mountain sickness. Because most of the works appeared under his name and those of his collaborators, and some only under the name of the latter, it is often difficult to assess the share contributed by Kronecker himself. He improved the proofs for the all-or-none law applied to the heart (1873) as well as the method of the isolated heart (1874). Almost simultaneously with E. J. Marey, he described the refractory period of the heart (1874). A device for irrigating and measuring the pressure of the isolated heart is named after him. He also discovered a blood substitute in saline solution. He reported on the lifesaving NaCl injection in 1884.
Together with S. J. Meltzer he worked on the deglutition reflex, its speed, and its dependence on the nervous system. Throughout his life Kronecker defended the theory of the neurogenic origin of the automatism of the heart beat, which later was shown to be mistaken. He constructed a much-used calibrated induction coil for the excitation of living organs and on several occasions dealt with questions concerning the excitability of the skeletal muscle and of the heart muscle.
When he was at Bern, most of his research dealt with the problem of mountain sickness. Kronecker argued against the oxygen-deficiency theory put forward by Paul Bert, favoring a mechanical theory - that is, he regarded a congestion of the lung vessels by pulmonary edema as its cause. This theory, too, was mistaken and Bert’s theory of oxygen-deficiency was proven right. In 1894 Kronecker led an expedition to Zermatt for the investigation of these pulmonary disturbances. The purpose of the expedition was to draw up an expert’s report on the possible dangers of the quick ascent up Jungfrau mountain on the cablerailway line, which was then in the planning stage (1892). The monograph “Mountain Sickness” (1903) presents the results of his work.
Membership
Kronecker was a member of the Royal Society, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium.
Royal Society
,
United Kingdom
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
,
Germany
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
,
United States
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
,
Hungary
Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine
,
Belgium
Personality
Kronecker's extreme amiability, his noble character, his generosity as a host, his sociability, and his merits as a scientist were praised by his friends, colleagues and students.
Connections
It is not known whether Kronecker was married or not.