Biography of Heinrich Quincke

Heinrich Quincke was awarded the honorary degree of LLD by the University of Glasgow on 13th June 1901.

Heinrich Irenaeus Quincke was the son of the prominent physician Geheimer Medicinal-Rath Hermann Quincke and he studied medicine at Heidelberg, Würzburg, and Berlin. He obtained his doctorate at Berlin in 1863 and, in 1878, he became the Chair of Internal Medicine at the University of Kiel where he remained until his retirement as emeritus in 1908.

Quincke was a very eminent medical scientist and he was the first to advocate surgical drainage of lung abscess and position patients to enable them to cough up sputum. He was also the first person to note poikilocytosis in pernicious anaemia and reported the association with gastric cancer in a patient in 1876. With Ernst Roos (1866-) he first distinguished Entamoeba histolytica from Escherichia coli. Quincke’s most notable contribution, however, was his introduction of the lumbar puncture as a diagnostic and therapeutic technique.

Heinrich's brother Georg Quincke was also awarded an honorary degree by the University, in 1896.

Summary

Heinrich Quincke
Born 1842.
Died 1922.
GU Degree: LLD, 1901;
University Link: Honorary Graduate
Record last updated: 21st Jun 2016

Country Associations

Germany, Frankfurt am Main
Place of Birth

University Connections

University Roles

• Honorary Graduate

Images

Heinrich Quincke entry in Honorary Degree register 1901