KRONECKER, HUGO

KRONECKER, HUGO (1839–1914), Swiss physiologist, pioneer in the study of blood pressure. Born in Silesia, Kronecker was a pupil of the famous pathologist Ludwig Traube and the physicist Helmut Helmholtz. This influenced his approach to the field of physiology, in particular his work on reflex action and animal heat. In his studies of the cardiac muscle, Kronecker discovered the coordinating center of the heart and the importance of inorganic salts for the heartbeat. His experiments led him to the invention of appliances for blood transfusion, a perfusion cannula, the phrenograph, the frog-heart manometer, and other equipment. After his conversion to Christianity Kronecker was appointed professor of physiology at the University of Berne, Switzerland, in 1884. His   dynamic personality and his keen powers of observation and dissertation justly gave him the reputation of one of the leading physiologists of his time. Among his publications were Beitraege zur Anatomie und Physiologie (1874) and Haller Redivivus (1902). From 1881 to 1884 he was editor of Centralblatt fuer die medizinischen Wissenschaften. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S.R. Kagan, Modern Medical World (1945), 185; R.H. Major, A History of Medicine, 2 (1954), 901–2. (Suessmann Muntner)