Otto Kohlrausch

Otto Ludwig Bernhard Kohlrausch (March 20, 1811 – November 14, 1854) was a German physician and surgeon born in Barmen.

He studied natural sciences at the University of Bonn and medicine at Georg-August University of Göttingen. He visited hospitals in Copenhagen and London, then in 1835 started a medical practice in Hanover.^[1] In 1841 he established a health spa at Bad Rehburg on behalf of the government.

Otto Kohlrausch was a member of a distinguished family of scientists and scholars; an uncle of his was famed physicist Friedrich Kohlrausch (1840–1910). The eponymous "Kohlrausch's valves" are named after him (also known as the transverse rectal folds). Another anatomical structure associated with his name is "Kohlrausch's muscle", a term used to refer to any of the longitudinal muscles of the rectal wall.^[2]

Selected publications

• Physiologie und Chemie in ihrer gegenseitigen Stellung (Physiology and chemistry in complementary positions); (Göttingen 1844).
• Zur Anatomie und Physiologie der Beckenorgane (The anatomy and physiology of the pelvic organs); (Leipzig 1854).^[3]

References

1. Jahresbericht der Naturhistorischen Gesellschaft zu Hannover, Volumes 44-54
2. Stedman's Medical Eponyms by Thomas Lathrop Stedman
3. ZVAB.com (published works)