STEINACH, EUGEN

STEINACH, EUGEN (1861–1944), physiologist and biologist. He was born in Hohenems (in the Tyrol) and became professor of physiology at the German University of Prague, where he established a laboratory for general and comparative physiology, particularly of the sexual organs. In 1912 he was appointed director of the department of experimental biology at the Vienna Academy of Science. Steinach also contributed to the study of the physiology of elastic tissue, of the sense organs and nervous system. He coined the name "puberty gland." Steinach devised an operation for rejuvenation which consisted in the ligation of the vas deferens to produce atrophy of the spermatogenic apparatus of the testes and consequently, as he supposed, proliferation of the interstitial tissue and increased production of the hormone testosterone. In 1920 he published a book on the subject entitled Verjuengung   durch experimentelle Neubelebung der alternden Pubertaetsdruese. He died in Montreux. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S.R. Kagan, Jewish Medicine (1952), 169; Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Aerzte. (Suessmann Muntner)