Friedrich Wilhelm Felix von Bärensprung

Who was Friedrich Wilhelm Felix von Bärensprung?

Friedrich Wilhelm Felix von Bärensprung, sometimes Baerensprung was a German dermatologist born in Berlin. His father, Friedrich von Bärensprung, was mayor of Berlin in 1832-34.

In 1843 he obtained his doctorate at Halle an der Saale, then furthered his studies in pathology at Prague, where he was also involved with entomological research. In 1845 he became a clinical assistant to Peter Krukenberg at Halle, and several years later, founded a private clinic in Halle. In 1853 he was appointed chief physician at the Syphilisklinik at the Berlin Charité, and in 1857 became an associate professor at the University of Berlin.

Bärensprung is credited as being the first physician to demonstrate a definite link between herpes zoster and a lesion of the dorsal root ganglion. Subsequently, he identified nine varieties of the disorder, of which he classified according to the nerve involved. In 1854, he provided the first description of tinea cruris, a condition that is sometimes referred to as "Bärensprung's disease" in medical literature.

He was in favor of housing projects for the impoverished, and also advocated the creation of day nurseries and children's homes. These measures, he reasoned, were an effective means to stop the spread of epidemics such as tuberculosis and scrofulosis. Among his written works was Atlas der Hautkrankheiten, an atlas on skin diseases that was edited and published posthumously by Ferdinand von Hebra.