He studied medicine in
Würzburg,
Berlin and
Heidelberg, earning his doctorate in 1859. After obtaining his degree, he served as an assistant to
Rudolf Virchow in
Berlin, then in 1862 received his
habilitation at the
University of Breslau. In 1864 he became an associate professor of pathology at the
University of Zurich, and during the following year, attained a full professorship at
Bonn. In 1874 he acquired the chair of pathology at the
University of Würzburg. He was one of the first proposers of a vascular theory for
multiple sclerosis after noticing in 1863 that the inflammation-associated lesions were distributed around veins. This work was the ground layer for the later
Tracy Putnam work in the vascular theory of MS. Also, he made noteworthy contributions in his pioneer research of
tuberculosis. He was one of the leading advocates of scientific "
neo-vitalism". == Associated eponyms ==