Arthur Böttcher

Who was Arthur Böttcher?

Jakob Ernst Arthur Böttcher was a Baltic German pathologist and anatomist who was a native of Bauska, in what was then the Courland Governorate. He worked primarily within the Russian Empire.

In 1856 he earned his medical doctorate from the University of Dorpat with a dissertation on the nerve supply to the inner ear's cochlea. He furthered his studies with journeys to Germany, France and Austria, and in 1862 he became a full professor of general pathology and pathological anatomy at Dorpat. From 1871 to 1877 he was editor of the magazine Dorpater Medicinische Zeitschrift.

Böttcher is largely known for his anatomical investigations of the inner ear, particularly studies involving the structure of the reticular lamina and nerve fibers of the organ of Corti. Today his name is associated with the eponymous "Bottcher cells", which are cells of the basilar membrane of the cochlea. Other anatomical terms that contain his name are:

Böttcher's canal: Known today as the ductus utriculosaccularis or as the utriculo-saccular duct. This duct connects the utricle with the endolymphatic duct a short distance from the saccule.