Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle

Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle (9 July 1809 - 13 May 1885) was a German physician, pathologist and anatomist. He is credited with the discovery of the loop of Henle in the kidney. His essay "On Miasma and Contagia" was an early argument for the germ theory of disease. He was an important figure in the development of modern medicine. Henle was born in Fürth, Bavaria, to Jewish parents. After studying medicine at Heidelberg and at Bonn, where he took his doctor's degree in 1832, he became prosector in anatomy to Johannes Müller at Berlin. During the six years he spent in that position he published a large amount of work, including three anatomical monographs on new species of animals, and papers on the structure of the lymphatic system, the...