Felix Victor Birch-Hirschfeld

Who was Felix Victor Birch-Hirschfeld?

Felix Victor Birch-Hirschfeld was a German pathologist who was a native of Kluvensieck bei Rendsburg.

In 1867 he received his medical doctorate from the University of Leipzig, where he studied under Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich and Ernst Leberecht Wagner. In 1870 he became a prosector at the city hospital in Dresden, and in 1885 returned to Leipzig, where he succeeded Julius Cohnheim as chair of pathological anatomy. One of his better known assistants was pathologist Christian Georg Schmorl.

Birch-Hirschfeld made important contributions in several facets of pathological medicine. He is known for his work in the field of bacteriology, with tuberculosis being the primary focus in regards to infectious diseases. In 1898 he described the unitary nature of nephroblastoma.

⁕Associated eponym:

⁕"Birch-Hirschfeld stain": A stain that was formerly used for demonstrating amyloid, and consisted of a mixture of Bismarck brown and crystal violet.