Adolf Kussmaul (1822-1902): from youth to maturity under the influence of Virchow.

Adolf Kussmaul (1822-1902) studied medicine at Heidelberg and Vienna, and practised in Kandern in the Black Forest until, in 1854, ill health forced him to quit country practice. Drawn by Rudolf Virchow to Wörzburg, he took his MD there in 1855, after which he held academic posts in Heidelberg, Erlangen, Freiburg and Strasburg until 1888, when he retired to Heidelberg and in his closing years composed Jugenderinnerungen, memoirs of his youth. Periarteritis (polyarteritis) nodosa, pulsus paradoxus, the paradoxical rise in jugular venous pressure on inspiration in constrictive pericarditis and the "air hunger" of diabetic ketosis are all evidence of shrewd clinical observation and interpretation associated with his name.