Daniel Cornelius Danielssen

Who was Daniel Cornelius Danielssen?

Daniel Cornelius Danielssen was a Norwegian physician, from Bergen.

He worked with Gerhard Armauer Hansen, discovering the bacteria causing leprosy, and made Bergen a world centre of lepra research in the middle of the nineteenth century. With dermatologist Carl Wilhelm Boeck, he was co-author of an acclaimed study on lepra titled Om Spedalskhed. In October 1849, he was named head physician of the research hospital, Lungegaardshospitalet. In 1859, German pathologist Rudolf Virchow visited Danielssen in Bergen in order to study lepra.

In 1876-78 he served as a zoologist on a Norwegian expedition to northern waters, and for several years was chairman of the Selskabet for de norske Fiskeriers Fremme. Also, for a number of years, Danielssen was a representative of Bergen to the Stortinget, 1862–64, 1871–73 and 1875-76. Danielssen was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences from 1877.