Julius Dreschfeld

Who was Julius Dreschfeld?

Julius Dreschfeld FRCP was a leading British physician and pathologist.

Julius Dreschfeld was born as the youngest of ten siblings on 13 October 1845 at Niederwerrn, in the Schweinfurt district of Bavaria. His parents, Samuel and Giedel, were well-off, well-respected Orthodox Jewish people who derived their livelihood from merchanting.

Educated initially at nearby Bamberg, in 1861 Dreschfeld travelled to be with a brother, Leopold, in Manchester, England. He knew little of the English language but continued his studies at Owens College, Manchester and the Manchester Royal School of Medicine. He excelled in chemistry and mathematics, as well as in English, and was influenced by Henry Enfield Roscoe. Dreschfeld then pursued further medical studies at the University of Würzburg from 1864, from where he gained his MD degree in 1867. He served as an assistant surgeon in the Bavarian Army during the brief Austro-Prussian War of 1866.

Returning to Manchester in 1869, Dreschfeld passed his LRCP and began to practise in Broughton. His skills were soon acknowledged and in 1872 he was appointed as an honorary assistant physician at Hulme Dispensary. One year later, he was elected as an honorary assistant physician at Manchester Royal Infirmary, rising to the position of honorary physician upon the retirement of William Roberts in 1883. It was also in 1883 that he was elected FRCP, having been a member since 1875. In 1899, Dreschfeld became honorary senior physician and in 1905 he became the hospital's first honorary consulting physician. This last post enabled him to continue working and teaching at the hospital despite him having reached its official retirement age.